The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Dec 2014 back issue
by Jerome Lorieau
My fascination for Moroccan Medinas started in 2004 when I visited the country for the first time for work. It was in
2008 when I returned to Morocco and started my photo essay . Since then, I have been there four times, visiting from
north to south, west to east, around fifteen medinas allowing me to appreciate their differences and contrasts but
also what they have in common. However, today I feel like the project has just started. I am in a learning process by
questioning, on each of my journeys, ordinary Moroccan people about their customs, concerns and feelings about the
future and every aspect of their everyday life inside the medina.
You could live your whole life without leaving the medina, a Moroccan man told me. It is a world apart from the rest of
the city. A world where people live in communities. A world of tradition. A world of religion. A world of solidarity. A world
of knowledge. A world of history. And each of these worlds are connected to each other by a truly unique Moroccan
culture that is the centre of Moroccan roots, character and society.
The Moroccan medinas are slowly changing, affected by tourism, a new population and a more global, individualistic
and westernised culture, sometimes conflicting with a more conservative and rural mentality following years of rural
exodus.
While investigating the long term impact of these changes and the changing culture inside the medinas, I have
decided to approach my essay by photographing its streets, its dense social life, colours and urban layout that first
attracted my attention. Once, as I was visiting Essaouira I was told this story: One day a Moroccan man moved to the
United States and never came back. Twenty years later, he decided to visit his native country and return to the place
he used to live. To his surprise, he found the same grocers and the same bakers where he used to go shopping, the
same hamman where he used to clean himself and the same craftsman that he used to visit for a chat.
Sunset on Essaouira rampart.
Boy playing football, Medina of Rabat.
Man in a traditional coffee shop, Medina of Fes.
Bread seller, Medina of Fes.
Scene of life in the Medina of Meknes.
Portrait of a health product seller, Medina of Marrakesh.
Worker cleaning himself, tannery Chouara, Medina of Fes.
View over the medina and the town of Tetouan.
Man coming from the local bakery and carrying homemade bread, Medina of Tetouan.
Traditional street food restaurant, Medina of Fes.
Smoke mark from a traditional hammam, Medina of Larache.
Scene of life in a market, Medina of Meknes.
Fish seller in a market, Medina of Meknes.
Sunlight and man traditionally dressed, Medina of Rabat.
Man playing violin in a traditional coffee shop, Medina of Chefchaouen.
View over the Rif mountains and a man wearing a traditional Moroccan djellaba.
Damaged arcade, Medina of Meknes.
Boys playing, medina of Tetouan.
