• Two women talking by a large wooden gate
    Monochrome Madness,  Morocco,  Photographic techniques,  Street photography,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: seeing the streets of Marrakesh in black and white

    If you visit a city only to see its famous sights, you are missing out on much of what makes that city what it is. The people who live there may do so against the backdrop of its grand buildings, iconic monuments, parks and so on, but for the most part those things are of secondary importance to their daily lives. If you want to really get to know a city you need also to observe those people.

  • View from above of large square with market stalls
    Culture & tradition,  Morocco,  Sunday Stills

    Day into night in the Jemaa el-Fnaa

    Sooner or later it seems, all paths in Marrakesh lead to the Jemaa el-Fnaa. The name (sometimes spelled Djemaa el Fna or Jamaa el Fna) means ‘Assembly of the Dead’ in Arabic; but a visit here suggests life in all its vibrancy. To call this the city’s main square doesn’t begin to do justice to it. This is a meeting place, a shopping centre, a performance space, a happening. It is surrounded by restaurants and cafés, each with a roof terrace to offer a ringside seat from where to observe all the action, but better by far to get immersed…

  • Shadow of lady with crutches
    Lens-Artists,  Morocco,  Street photography

    Keep walking … even on crutches!

    We were just twenty-four hours into our first visit to Marrakesh. We had arrived in the city with high expectations. It had been on our wish-list for some years; and as this was the first holiday of any length that we had been able to take together for over a year, we were determined to enjoy it. But on the evening of our first day I stumbled on the edge of a tiled basin in a fancy restaurant and broke a bone in my foot. I spent the rest of the week on crutches ...

  • Detail of ornate tiled frieze
    Architecture,  Morocco,  Sunday Stills,  Travel galleries

    Finding geometry in the buildings of Marrakesh

    Some of the most beautiful architecture I have seen has been in the Islamic world. Islamic art shuns the depiction of living figures, whether human or animal, partly to avoid any suggestion of idolatry and partly because it is believed that the creation of living forms is Allah’s prerogative. Instead the emphasis is on geometric forms as well as calligraphy and abstract floral motifs.

  • Balloon over a desert landscape
    Deserts,  Lens-Artists,  Morocco

    Reaching for the sky again in Africa

    Once you have been in a hot air balloon, and loved the experience as I did, you will seize any opportunity to fly again. Leonardo da Vinci had it right, even though he himself had never flown, when he said, 'Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.'

  • Edited image of Ankor Wat, with reflection added
    Friendly Friday,  Photographic techniques

    Smoke and mirrors

    Some say the camera never lies. But does it? Even before technology made it possible to alter reality, photographers were playing around with tricks and illusions. Today it is easier than ever to edit an image; to fool the viewer into seeing something that was never there, or not seeing something that was.