///NOTE: please visit my real blog at http://www.haonavy.com/fledglingphotographer to see this post in all its intended way.///
If your photos aren’t good enough…you’re not in Morocco.
Okay, just kidding… that sounds a little pretentious, but seriously…
“If your photos aren’t good enough, you are not close enough,” said Robert Capa around 75 years ago.
I’ve been a lot of places, but that quote has never been so true as it is in places like this.
Fes, Morocco, is quickly becoming one of my favorite cities along with Jerusalem, Athens and Prague.
This is a city of very hard-working people…
…a people grizzled by the sun and the work until it seems to become the style itself.
To capture this, though, you must get close…
Inside the shops of the knife and scissor sharpeners, where the sparks and grit fly off the grinding wheel onto your pants you’ve been wearing for three weeks straight…
…or get in those little places in the world that tourists get to only see from afar.
For instance, they see the tannery…
…but you or I, as the photojournalist, get to show them…
…wide-angle lenses, up close and personal… the person in the pit.
Oh, how I wish I could spend a significant amount of time down there… telling the story of someone like this.
Or the craftsman who turns the raw materials into works of art…
But even if you’re not a – quote-unquote – “photojournalist” all it takes is an interest in people and a desire to make sure people know that no matter how small they might feel…
…they do matter.
How does it work?
I really believe that people are just people and no matter where you go being kind and showing a little humility goes a long way. No bull I’ve ever heard of got out of the china shop without breaking things and making the shopkeeper mad.
You are invading THEIR place, you have no right to be in their space taking their photo and asking them questions. Make sure they know you know that… it will go a long way when you are the one invited…
…instead of the one who just insists on being there.
But above all, you have to get out there. Get out of your house, your city, your state, your country – but above all: your comfort zone – and just make it happen.
Nobody can do it for you… except you. Oh, and find a really exceptional fixer/guide like our new friend Mohamed… very few of these photographs would be possible without his talent.
Shukran, my friend!! 🙂
Stay tuned, my friends…
-Noah D.
.
PS: There are a LOT more photos from today that just didn’t make the blog. See them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/haonavy/ … like this one from a major pottery cooperative outside the medina:
…or this one from inside the gates of a school:
