Sheltering Skies over Morocco

Moroccan road with curious people

#Moroccan Girl

“I was recently reminded of Morocco in the late 1980s and of a haunting photo I once took there of a young girl stoically looking out over a river in a dry valley.”
Fortunately, I could find the 38 year old film negatives from the Morocco trip in one of my film archive binders.
I took this photo and a series of others during a short trip in Morocco and in that respect it was a kind of wild introduction to North Africa.
We traveled with a small car (Renault 4) and I photographed with a Minolta CLE and 40mm and 28mm rokkor lenses.
Kodak 400 T-max film.

‘Moroccan Girl’ is my modest salute to photographer Steve McCurry’s ‘Afghan girl’ photo and the film/book ‘The Sheltering Sky’ but in a different way of course.

Moroccan Girl looking stoically out over the valley
Moroccan Girl looking stoically out over the valley
Moroccan Girl looking stoically out over the valley
Moroccan Girl

The Killing ‘Caught in the Act’

Morroco Sheep killing
Caught in the Act

From the car my eye fell on the heavy sky and a wall covered with cacti plants. Curious, I stopped the car and climbed over the hill and suddenly found myself face to face with a group of men who had apparently slaughtered a sheep a few minutes earlier.


In my first reaction of surprise I took a photo that no one saw, in the second the man with the knife looks at me. I personally felt as if I had caught the event in the act of a killing.


The overall image of the men, the knife, the bleeding dead sheep and the dramatic sky together the mosque tower on the horizon brought everything together.

Morocco 1987 road trip
Camera Minolta CLE
Lens Rokkor 40mm
Film Kodak t-max 400

Essaouira

You often find the best moments when you walk among people who work and are busy with what connects them. The old fish market in Essaouira shows people in their element.
Wonderfully messy image and dynamics.

Essaouira fish port

Essaouira fish port street photography

Essaouira fish port

Roadmovie’ random encounters from Morocco on film

Moroccan road with curious people

loading camels in morocco

Morocco woman