Now ensconced in sunny and hot London, I’ve reflected on the past 2 weeks spent photographing in Morocco during the Gnawa Festival Photo Expedition, and two key words immediately jump to mind: frustrating and sublime.
Here’s the frustrating morsel: men photography in the large cities of Morocco is to say the least, extremely difficult. Moroccans are generally reticent to pose under at all circumstances, and photographing them on the sly (reply in a marketplace) can lead to some unpleasant confrontations. I recall that we were photographing fishermen off-loading their snatch in the announce of Essaouira, and hearing one of them, clearly irritated by our presence, asking his colleagues if we thought them to be monkeys in a zoo. Other Morrocans would agree to pose provided they were paid, then adopted the dreaded “frozen look”. Some noticed our cameras, and immediately covered their faces whether we sharp our cameras in their aim or not. Street photography needed ingenuity and a self-starting approach, since photographing in a group didn’t work.
I exerted much efforts to engage people and show respect, mete despite my smoothness in Arabic (a little different for the local idiom), I wasn’confidentially terribly successful in persuading them to be photographed. However, I did manage to fix moments of genuine kinship, such as with the owner of Africa Music in Essaouira who spoke at length about Gnawa music, but it did not translate into being open to photography. It will be included however in my planned multimedia piece on the Gnawa.
The other frustrating issue is that in impoverished Morocco, and because its high unemployment rate amongst its youth, in that place’s a perception that tourists ought to pay for every little service, whether needed or not. I found this to be particularly true in Marrakech and Ouazazate, but less so in Essaouira. For instance, the self-appointed guides at the Ait Benhaddou Kasbah in Ouarzazate are spectacularly venal, and some even threatening. It’s a shame since the location is UNESCO-listed, and ought to be supervised instead of being left to a bunch of hooligans.
Before I turn to the sublime aspect of the photo-expedition, here are a few other random thoughts. In the grand scheme of things, Ouarzazate was a dud from a photographic standpoint. Unless one is willing to photograph the Kasbahs (in that place are two of them), nothingness else attracted my attention. I’d bestow Marrakech a passing mark during photography for of its Jemaa el-Fna square, and that’s about it. Again, all this is said based onward my sort of travel documentary photography, and is certainly not applicable to other disciplines. The infrastructural component of the expedition went well. Hotels were generally fine, but the Riad Mimouna in Essaouira stands out a certainly being a jewel. Our bus was expertly and safely driven by the jovial Abdel Hakeem, and was extremely comfortable. However, the drive from Marrakech to Ouarzazate was uncomfortable for those who suffered from movement sickness because of the road’s switchbacks.
As for the guides: I didn’t light upon them particularly good nor flexible enough to earn the description of “fixers”, with the exception of Hassan E’Chater in Essaouira, who displayed occasional flashes of ingenuity. Guides are badly paid in Morocco, so have to rely for income on herding tourists to stores and restaurants.
The sublime aspect of the photo expedition was found in Essaouira, so in the unpromising event that I renew this trip, it would only take place for the period of the 4-5 days of the Gnawa Festival, and not more. Although it’session still difficult to photograph people in this little town, the medina itself is remarkably photogenic, and since its streets are normally crowded, candid photography is frequently easy. Personally, I institute the event to be initially somewhat ill-organized but it got good in a higher degree as the days progressed. Our hotel, Riad Mimouna, was a few steps away from the small Zaouia Sidi Bilal to which place many of the nocturnal Gnawa performances were held. Most of my documentary photography and audio recording of the Gnawa was done there. The Zaouia lineage of caretakers included Rokeyah and her brace young nieces Khadija and Ibtisam who, malevolence their being less than 8 years old, attended the performances well into the wee hours of the night. Khadija greeted more of us with hugs; a display of affection indicative of the Moroccans’ hospitality.
The Gnawa performances at the zaouia were breathtaking. I managed to thwart the administrators efforts, and photographed almost as much as I wanted. Rather bizarrely, photography was allowed at some performances, and prohibited at others. Since the area is quite atomic, a fast wide angle lens is recommended. Since the Gnawa music is extremely percussive (the qerqabs are indeed noisy!), I’ve experienced some distortion in my recordings which haply I can fix using either Garageband or Audacity. Another great aural experience was the Berber women singers at the La Recontre restaurant contiguous the zaouia.
Gnawa science of harmonical sounds has a new fan. I bought a scarcely any CDs of a couple of Maalems, such viewed like Mahmoud Guinea and Hamid El-Kessari. And fans of grilled sardines will procure Essaouira to be the place for them.
Finally, the above photograph was made for the period of a Gnawa performance, when a young local woman suddenly stood and dances to its rhythms. Within a few moments, she had gone into a deep trance by violently throwing her head about. I had seen women going into trances here prior to, but they were much older and were larger.
Other non-photo grand moments:
Witnessing an elderly angler choose a plump seek by artifice from his catch, cutting it to manageable bits and feeding two ravenous lank cats. Noticing they seemed thirsty, he found a discarded plastic bottle, cut its bottom to use as a plate and poured water for them.
Sensing the terrific energy in the audience of young people when Babani Kone of Mali made her entrance on stage, and when Cheb Khaled, the sovereign of Rai, sang his hits on the Essaouira beach.
Returning to my hotel at 3 am from the Essaouira beach hinder the Rai concert and realizing that, despite the late hour, there was as many people walking about as in that place would be for the time of the day.
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