Despite the calm appearance of this image the scene below and behind me was chaos. As I perched on a precarious ledge to get this shot, Bedouin children appeared from nowhere and were hounding me to buy their trinkets.

Since the terrorist bombings in this region visitor numbers have fallen. I tried to convey the emptiness with this image. The road is on the way to St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert Egypt. It was taken in December on an extremely cold day. I was followed by an armed guard whenever I left the vehicle and was only allowed to step a few yards without being stopped. Despite many Bedouin sheikhs owning mobile phones and driving 4×4’s the landscape still remains biblical.

This image was for a personal project which follows on from a book I am shooting called A Greek Identity. All of the images are captured on medium format colour negative. Most of the places that I photograph I visit only once and that can be an added pressure to get something that I am happy with. I like to shoot by instinct, unplanned. My images often feature unlikely juxtapositions and scenes that are haunting or melancholy.

Emma Peios left Salisbury College in 1996 but was already working as a freelance assistant in London. The last cup of tea she made as an assistant was on a shoot with the boy band 5. Preferring the calm and slightly saner world of still life work she has been shooting editorial, PR and design work for nearly ten years.

In 2005 she established www.pollen-photos.com an online picture library of contemporary garden and plant related images. The library represents a new generation of garden photographers.

Photographer since 1996, EPUK member since 2003.