Aaron Vincent Elkaim: Jewish Morocco

Photo © Aaron Vincent Elkaim-All Rights Reserved
On the occasion of Passover, I thought of posting an interesting visual-historical-religious photo essay relating to the long Judeo-Muslim history of Morocco by Aaron Vincent Elkaim.

Jewish history in Morocco dates back to over 2000 years, and Jews have lived in the country as a protected minority. Prior to the arrival of the French in 1912, the currency and flag of Morocco carried the star of David, a recognition that it represented a prophet revered by Jew and Muslim (as Dawood) alike. During the Second World War, the king of Morocco famously declared to the Nazis (who wanted a list of Jews) that there were no Jews in Morocco, only Moroccan citizens.

Following the establishment of Israel, most of the Moroccan Jews have left their country of birth for the USA, France, Canada and Israel itself.

Aaron is an emerging documentary photography who initially studied Film and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Manitoba. His work was awarded on numerous occasions and published in newspapers and magazines across Canada.

His photographs in the mellahs of Marrakesh and Essaouira remind me of my own at the synagogues in these two cities last summer, during the Essaouira Gnawa festival.

Clive Evans: Morocco

Timeless Morocco - Images by Clive Evans

Born in England, Clive travels the world (especially Europe) from his homes in Southern France and Ireland. His years of traveling and documenting Europe and its people result in images expressing individuals, their cultures, and their environments--often with a visual twist.

Clive is also a founder member of Lumen, an international photographer's cooperative with members in Norway, France, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and Estonia.

His website, hosted by Photoshelter, has 20 galleries but I chose the one of Morocco, which usually provides enormous difficulties to street photographers wishing to capture its people. One of the photographs in the gallery (#5) perfectly expresses the reaction of people when a photographer attempts to take their picture. However, in many cases the reaction is not as good-humored.

From looking at Clive's well composed photographs of Chefchaouen, I realized that the slideshow seems to have somewhat washed out the colors of the photographs, since Chefchaouen's blue is not as vivid as I've seen them in others.

Sean Gilligan: Morocco

In my experience, Morocco is one of the most difficult places for people photography. One not only needs the technical skills of photographing quickly and unobtrusively, but also have an enormous reservoir of patience. I think that Sean Gilligan managed to pull it very well with his gallery titled God, King & Country . The title is from the 3rd image of the gallery which shows a mound of dark sand in which the words God, King, Country are inscribed in white.

Sean Gilligan is a photographer based in New York City, whose objectives are to document cultural diversity, unexpected beauty, intimacy, landscape, and individuals personalities. He has a deep connection with Africa and Ireland and has, over the years, been documenting traditional life as it coexists with modern living.

His work has been featured by CNN, Wall Street Journal, Adidas, Fortune, ESPN, Forbes, among others.

His website has been recently updated and apart from his Morocco gallery, features galleries of Paris, Mexico, Namibia and Ireland.