Intimate Portraits Capture the Rarely Photographed Faces of Morocco

UK-based photographer Alan Schaller recently returned from a trip to Morocco and has generously shared some of his favourite snapshots from the trip. A notoriously difficult country to collect pictures of people–Moroccans seldom approve of having their pictures taken–this was an obstacle that the street photographer had to respect and work around. Despite these cultural barriers, Schaller was able to use his experience and charm to capture an array of local faces that coloured the streets of this wonderfully vivid country.

Schaller favours an intimate style of portraiture, taking close range shots of his subjects. The rapport between photographer and subject is apparent in his images, enabling a feeling of familiarity between his audience and the people that he photographs. Schaller found that, within Morocco, although some pictures were able to be taken quite candidly, in the majority of situations it was necessary to converse with his desired subjects, earning a level of trust and respect before he was able to photograph them. “I have never been rejected more times in my life, but met great characters along the way,” Schaller admits.

“The Moroccans seemed as interested in hearing about my home town of London as I was in discovering their stories. This social interaction with the friendly locals taught me much about the Moroccan culture and way of life,” he says of the whole experience.

Schaller has an upcoming exhibition of fifteen prints from his Moroccan travels, throughout the cities Tangier, Chefchaouen and Asilah. The show will run from from February through the end of April at The Classic Camera in Holborn.