The PHOTO OP series — to which SEMIOVOX has invited our semiotician colleagues from around the world to contribute — analyzes photos that we’ve snapped while “off the job.”

I have been trying to encourage myself and my family to switch to the healthy alternatives that have started to show up in Saudi a few years ago. Unfortunately, many of these products fail to taste as good as we’d hoped. As someone who’s worked on healthy snacking projects, I’ve observed that too often companies assume that “Saudis are not interested in healthy snacks.” My response: “You haven’t figured out the flavors for our palate yet.”

If you only see the glittering lights, you are missing what’s being signaled here. Many traditional gold/jewelry markets in “souks” have been razed, in recent years, which gave us a sense of modernization — i.e., it suggested that the fervor that an older generation of Middle Eastern women has long felt about investing in gold jewelry is becoming a thing of the past. (Something like 80 percent of Saudi women are under 40.) But the trend continues. Here we see a brand-new section of shops selling gold jewelry, in an upscale section of Jeddah, earlier this year.

Could it be love? I am often desperately looking for the “Gluten Free” label… but according to the medical community, it is just that. I have a non-Celiac related gluten intolerance. Although awareness of gluten-related issues has been on the rise in Saudi, a “gluten-free” lifestyle is far from trendy here. My note about the medical community is a dig at the many doctors here who still focus only on Celiac.

PHOTO OP: Mariane Cara (Brazil) on LA LUCHA CONTINUA | Aiyana Gunjan (India) on YAMRAJ | Greg Rowland (England) on I ❤️ FOOD | Gabriela Pedranti (Spain) on NOT SO TRIVIAL | Biba Allarakia (Saudi Arabia) on ALL THAT GLITTERS | Brian Khumalo (South Africa) on A LOST MEMORY | Becks Collins (England) on A MILLENNIAL ON THE BRINK | Samuel Grange (France) on SLOW DOWN | Rachel Lawes (England) on DESKTOP COLLECTIONS | Marie Lena Tupot (USA) on BOX OFFICE | Sónia Marques (Portugal) on SWISS-NESS | Serdar Paktin (Turkey / England) on BOTTLE SERVICE | Stefania Gogna (Italy) on OPEN-AIR MUSEUM | Charles Leech (Canada) on IS IT IRONIC? | Kishore Budha (England) on DOWN THE TUBE | Josh Glenn (USA) on JOINED AT THE DIP | Mark Lemon (England) on SHOP LOCAL | William Liu (China) on SWAN SONG | Malcolm Evans (Wales) on CHOCOCRACK | Paulina Goch-Kenawy (Poland) on POLAND’S NEW (HI)STORY | Adelina Vaca (Mexico) on LOVE TRAVELS | Natasha Delliston (England) on NATURE BATHING | Ramona Lyons (USA) on TBD | Victoria Gerstman (England) on TBD | Ximena Tobi (Argentina) on TBD.

Also see these international semio series: COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | MAKING SENSE | COLOR CODEX | DECODER | CASE FILE