People in Fez (Morocco)

[marcocarmassi]

I'm working on a new gallery of photos I took in Fez, an old Moroccan town. It's a very peculiar place where people habits are like one hundred years ago, a real dive in the past. For this preview photos my choice is b&w, I feel it more fitting for these subjects. The last one is me and I wanna thank Kemal who took it with a cell phone and sent me.

[shutterpup]

I'm sorry; from the title of the thread, I expected to see people in fez hats. Oh dear.

When I got past that, I like the B&W, and while all are good to my eye, I prefer the first.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I really, really like the first one and could stare at her face all day long wondering what is she thinking - she has a very enigmatic expression that very much reminds me of the Mona Lisa, now you can't really say much more than that can you?

The others are also very good, but for me, she totally steals the show - excellent work.

Dave

[RawheaD]

I was just in Morocco!  What a wonderful place.  While I spent most of the time shooting landscape (ref: flickr.com/rawhead), I did try out some ppl portraits/street photo when I could.

Not an easy place to do so, since many people, while attractive as hell as subjects, really dislike being photographed!

[Rob C]

I was just in Morocco!  What a wonderful place.  While I spent most of the time shooting landscape (ref: flickr.com/rawhead), I did try out some ppl portraits/street photo when I could.

Not an easy place to do so, since many people, while attractive as hell as subjects, really dislike being photographed!

Not surprising; the human isn't fair game for representation via images. It's part of the religion and not just a personal thing. In some seriously religious places it could get you into real trouble. Check that out.

From my own perspective, and I stress from my own, however good this sort of photography is, it is still a form of exploitation and leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth. It's like people are some kind of curio, objects. When it's clear people don't like it, what the hell gives anyone the right to do it? Would you like people snapping at your wife through the bathroom window? Not much difference in the principle, and when it offends your religion, then it's even worse; your wife has the option of drawing the blinds - if she wants to do so, these people don't and are too polite to make a scene. Shame on the crass westener; no bloody wonder so many folks hate us.

Rob C

[RawheaD]

It doesn't have a whole lot to do with religion (Islam), from what I gathered.  The dislike towards photography, from what I heard, is a more recent phenomenon; having to do with candid portraiture ending up in Facebook etc.  I visited a photography museum in Marrakech, where beautiful portraits of Moroccans from the early 20th century were displayed (seriously, you need to visit it if you're in Marrakech: http://goo.gl/S0CNE).

I shot mostly with my Speed Graphic / Aero Ektar, to make sure people could *see* I was shooting.  Whenever I got an evil eye, I pointed the camera away... which was rare.  In many cases, people actually came up to me to ask about the camera, and when I offered to give them the prints from the FP-100C45, they all happily obliged (I got to keep the negatives, which I later salvaged).  I bartered a few sundries in exchange for prints as well.  It surely wasn't their religion telling them not to get photographed.... unless they could get peel-apart prints in exchange :-)

But sure, be judgmental.  It's our fault that 9/11 happened

[Rob C]

It doesn't have a whole lot to do with religion (Islam), from what I gathered.  The dislike towards photography, from what I heard, is a more recent phenomenon; having to do with candid portraiture ending up in Facebook etc.  I visited a photography museum in Marrakech, where beautiful portraits of Moroccans from the early 20th century were displayed (seriously, you need to visit it if you're in Marrakech: http://goo.gl/S0CNE).

I shot mostly with my Speed Graphic / Aero Ektar, to make sure people could *see* I was shooting.  Whenever I got an evil eye, I pointed the camera away... which was rare.  In many cases, people actually came up to me to ask about the camera, and when I offered to give them the prints from the FP-100C45, they all happily obliged (I got to keep the negatives, which I later salvaged).  I bartered a few sundries in exchange for prints as well.  It surely wasn't their religion telling them not to get photographed.... unless they could get peel-apart prints in exchange :-)

But sure, be judgmental.  It's our fault that 9/11 happened

There are many who will tell you exactly that.

In Britain, there have been numerous cases of Asian parents and brothers killing their daughters/sisters because they believe that the poor girls have had the 'wrong' kind of relationship. Don't assume that all the world shares our own specific moral codes, shaky as most of ours are.

Rob C

[marcocarmassi]

I really like to post my shots here to share my experiences with you and to read your personal points of view. To me, photography is a quite serious issue and I never "waste" a shot without a real motivation. I never slight any subject and always show my camera before shooting or I ask permission to do it.
It happened that someone refused to be photographed, I simply accepted it and thanked that person. Maybe troubles rise from arrogance, since some people think they're allowed to do what they want in other's places. I'd not trot out religious beliefs, it's just a matter of rudeness and lack of respect.
Everything that differs from our ordinary habits intrigues us, the photographer is mainly a curious person who feels an inner need to narrate and to fix fragments of life on images, whether a landscape or a face.
Fez is a magical town, not just for its history which you can breathe inch by inch but mainly for the extraordinary people you meet. The purpose of my shots is to tell the daily habits of this town by faces and actions with utmost respect, without offending or poking fun at anything or anybody.

@RobC Quite hard to find a kid with a bottle of wine in a muslim country 

[RawheaD]

It really comes down to whether or not you can have and show respect for your subjects; in this sense, it is no different if you're shooting the streets of Fez and Marrakech or those of New York, Paris, and Tokyo.  If street photography is "exploitative" in essence, it's exploitative regardless of where it's conducted.

[Rob C]

I really like to post my shots here to share my experiences with you and to read your personal points of view. To me, photography is a quite serious issue and I never "waste" a shot without a real motivation. I never slight any subject and always show my camera before shooting or I ask permission to do it.
It happened that someone refused to be photographed, I simply accepted it and thanked that person. Maybe troubles rise from arrogance, since some people think they're allowed to do what they want in other's places. I'd not trot out religious beliefs, it's just a matter of rudeness and lack of respect.
Everything that differs from our ordinary habits intrigues us, the photographer is mainly a curious person who feels an inner need to narrate and to fix fragments of life on images, whether a landscape or a face.
Fez is a magical town, not just for its history which you can breathe inch by inch but mainly for the extraordinary people you meet. The purpose of my shots is to tell the daily habits of this town by faces and actions with utmost respect, without offending or poking fun at anything or anybody.

@RobC Quite hard to find a kid with a bottle of wine in a muslim country 

For you and the rest of us, yes; for HC-B it would have been a piece of cake! It's what camera bags are for.

Rob C

[Rob C]

It really comes down to whether or not you can have and show respect for your subjects; in this sense, it is no different if you're shooting the streets of Fez and Marrakech or those of New York, Paris, and Tokyo.  If street photography is "exploitative" in essence, it's exploitative regardless of where it's conducted.

I think you are right, and I think that it is. But then, so is much of life, and I suppose folks do what they can get away with and stop when they are told: so far, and no further.

Rob C