Leila Alaoui was a fine photographer influenced by Robert Frank one of the American giants of the art. Unfortunately she was killed recently while on assignment in Burkina Faso. Click on these striking images.
\http://www.leilaalaoui.com/#!themoroccans/c1ep1
'"The Moroccans" is a series of life-sized photographic portraits shot in a mobile studio transported around Morocco. Tapping into my Moroccan heritage, I spent time staying with different communities to create photographs from the perspective of the participant observer, aiming for a more informed angle than an external documentarian might take. Rather than being objective, the series adopts the subjectivity of my own position as both an insider and native Moroccan, and simultaneously an outsider as the critically informed documentarian. This hybrid position echoes the postcolonial correction that globally conscious contemporary artists are now mounting worldwide to counterpoint the tired exoticization of North Africa and the Arab region by Euro-American artists through history.
Morocco has a specific position in this backstory of photographers using the culture – particularly elements from native costume and architecture – to construct their own fantasies of an exotic “other” world. Foreign photographers often depict Westerners in Morocco when they want convey glamour or elegance, while framing local people rustic or folkloric, reiterating the patronizing gaze of the Orientalist. My intention was to counter this in these portraits by adopting similar studio techniques to photographers such as Richard Avedon in his series “In the American West”, who portrays his subjects as empowered and glamorous, drawing out the innate pride and entitlement of each individual person.
Inspired by Robert Frank’s portrayal of post-war America through “The Americans”, I embarked on a road trip through rural Morocco to photograph women, men and children from diverse ethnic and tribal groups including Berbers and Arabs. This on-going project serves as a visual archive of the Moroccan traditions and aesthetics now disappearing with globalization.'
Leila Alaoui
Orbituary
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/22/leila-alaoui