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| Photo © Rachel Carbonell-All Rights Reserved |
One of the most difficult countries for people photography is -in my experience, at least- Morocco. This is caused by the local combination of traditional beliefs and the Islamic distaste for the reproduction of the human form. The latter is known as aniconism, which is the practice of or belief in the avoiding or shunning of images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures...and in the case of some Islamic countries, is also misinterpreted as images of all human beings.
Notwithstanding that difficulty, talented travel photographer Rachel Carbonell has just featured Moroccan Medinas: The Colors And Shadows of Life; a photo gallery of more than 40 photographs of the medinas from the blues of Chefchaouen, Larache, Essaouira to the ochres of Meknes and Fez, and from the pinks of Marrakech and Tiznit to the whites of Azemmour, Moulay Idriss, Tetuan and Asilah.
This is a project that took more than two years to complete, over many voyages to Morocco. It's also how Rachel tells us how the atmosphere of its bustling streets and alleys hopelessly caught and seduced her.
The word medina is the Arabic for city or town, and are generally found in many North African cities. They are typically surrounded by a wall, and contain many narrow and maze-like streets, and can also contain historical fountains, small palaces (or riads), and mosques. Some medinas were also used to confuse and slow down invaders because of how narrow and winding their alleys were.
Rachel has also published a book Moroccan Medinas which is available on Blurb.
Rachel Carbonell is a Spanish photographer who graduated from the University of Deusto, and studied Photography at IDEP (Barcelona). She is a Getty Images Contributing Photographer, and her images have been published in press, books, magazines, websites etc. such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, MC Ediciones, Random House Mondadori S.A, Glamour France, Iberia, Nulle Parts Ailleurs Productions and others.
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