She is now a specialist in Moroccan photography. She is active as an exhibition curator, artist agent, and organizer of cultural events. Yacout Info contacted her for this exclusive preview of her upcoming book on Moroccan Photography.

For her research and preparation for this book, she made several trips to Morocco and met with many photographers, visual artists, collectors, gallery owners and Moroccan art critics. She writes for the recognition of ancient and contemporary Moroccan photography both in Morocco and the rest of the international scene.

“A History of Moroccan Photography” is an unpublished work in the field of Arab and African photography. For the first time a publication gives an overview of the photography of a Maghreb country, from its origins until today. The book will be released later in 2010 and will be accompanied by a series of exhibitions in Europe and Morocco in each of the major cities of the kingdom.

At the upcoming Paris Photo Show (19-22 November 2009) which pays tribute to Arab photography, a presentation of the book will be unveiled in a preview on the stand of Galerie 127 Marrakech, in collaboration with "Editions du Cherche Midi" (Paris).

For fifteen years Arab and African photography has emerged on the contemporary international scene. Several events have contributed to its emergence and recognition: festivals, exhibitions and books, produced in Africa, Europe and the United States have revealed a new picture, that of another image of the world. However, attention to every country of this new map of the world's photography is still unbalanced. If Mali, Egypt and Lebanon occupy a prominent place among the emerging countries, Morocco has so far a fragmented recognition.

It is therefore by duty and need that this book presents the last set of Moroccan ancient and contemporary photography and sheds light on its evolution, clichés, questions, and its most notable accomplishments.

Moroccan early photography has always been overshadowed by the prodigious number of pictures produced in Morocco by Westerners. However, this photography does exist and has given its own vision of the Oriental period.

The recognition of contemporary creation, in turn, has followed a slower path to media coverage of some major figures involved in this photography, with attention being diverted to other artistic practices, or just driven by a clear lack of events bringing photographers together. However, Moroccan contemporary photography shows a rich and unexpected vitality.

These are the various gaps that this book tries to fill: to (re) discover the history of photography in Morocco since the early twentieth century until today, noting the many changes it faced to get up to us.
Moroccan photography was born in the highest and most secret place in the country, the palace of Sultan Moulay Abd el Aziz.. A capricious sovereign, this hobby soon became a passion and an artistic practice in its own right. Moulay Abd el Aziz introduced photograph in Morocco, just as he introduced the main features of Western modernity.

The French colonial presence then played a key role in developing the practice of photography by Moroccans. In 1910, two years after the removal of Moulay Abd el Aziz and the abandonment of the practice of the medium, several indigenous photographers - especially from the Jewish community - made their appearance. "The empire of the postcard" could then expand, giving rise to several photo studios owned by Jewish and Muslim Moroccans. The book reveals this for the first time.

After independence in 1956, examples of photographic art are rare. Street photographers and studios thrive and Moroccans have become accustomed to making Western portrayal. It is through photojournalism and official photography as a medium that photography became contemporary. Mohamed Maradji is the undisputed figure of the early years of independence, "the photographer of the king," as Moroccans called him, was the first representative of this practice in their eyes, and thereby in the eyes of the Western world. Accredited by the palace and recognized as official photographer for the royal family, he covered historical events and ceremonies in Morocco and abroad, from King Mohamed V to King Mohamed VI, passing through Hassan II with whom he served the longest.

It was not until 1974 that a genuine artistic photography came into being. It was through a budding diplomat, inveterate traveler and future Minister of His Majesty that contemporary photography was born in Morocco. A prime example of a "return home" after his formative years in the United States, Mohamed Benaissa photographed his hometown of Asilah with a look at the western style, but tinged with memories of his childhood, revealing an image of an unpublished Moroccan life.

In the 80's, contemporary photography emerged. Encouraged by the work of Benaissa, a group of photographers such as the Moroccan Association of Photographic Art (AMAP) tried to give visibility to photography and other fields of visual creation crushed at that time by the omnipresence of painting. An autonomous personality also inspired these initiatives: Daoud Aoulad Siad who took the path of Henri Cartier-Bresson and gave his vision of Morocco in the book titled "Moroccans" (Contrejour - Belvisi, Paris - Agadir, 1989). It caused a stir in Moroccan society, as it sparked both admiration and criticism, focusing its gaze without concession to show Morocco in its naked truth.

The way was thus open to young photographers, many of whom chose to go abroad, at least initially, to form or establish their career. Yto Barrada, Hicham Benouhoud and several others toiled for recognition of their work,hopelessly facing various ailments that make up the Morocco of today. Supported by the growing interest in Arab and African photography in the past decade, they are now identified as safe and independent values of contemporary photography. Other photographers, speaking through a more traditional medium, now have access to a growing recognition. Lamia Naji and Ali Chraibi, among others, have develop a sensitive approach to photography, offering a personal vision of their homeland and/other more universal issues.

The young guard of Moroccan photography is working today to make its voice heard, a project that is still difficult to realize because of the lack of initiatives in the domain of photography in Morocco. Critical thinking, experimentation and visual self-expression are their main concerns. But the difficulty of access to a true status, obtaining support for the creation and exhibition of their work often force them to leave the country in order to exist. This book is especially designed to overcome this lack of recognition of the young Moroccan photographer.

In parallel to these generations involved in their country of origin, there is people like Touhami Ennadre or Lalla Essaydi, representatives of a community of photographers, Pied Noire or exiles, who used their own way to prove they belong to Morocco. Stories of roots, memories, or identities, the photographers of the "diaspora" and "origins" definitely represent an important side of Moroccan photography.

In fact they have participated as an integral part of this artistic practice: marked with the seal of "abroad". Since its beginnings Moroccan photography has been characterized by a profound manifestation of the confrontation between the country and elsewhere, between the East and the West.