Fez, Morocco
For the connoisseur of medieval labor practices, Fez is a hard place to beat. You can watch 12-year-old boys running metal lathes, hauling inhuman loads and spinning miles of thread for lovely Berber rugs. Or like me you can assuage some measure of guilt by giving one five bucks to show you the sights. My […]
Marrakech, Morocco
My unhealthy attraction to fire is well documented in family lore. My brother still delights in describing the time I set myself alight with gunpowder in 1977. Since that time, I’ve tried to channel this obsession in directions that do not involve emergency room visits. Djema El Fna square lies in the center of Marrakech’s […]
February 28, 2000 – El Jadida, Morocco
Neon crescent sign shines above pharmacy outside walled medina in Atlantic Coast town of El Jadida, Morocco. Photographed February 28, 2000 with a Leica M6 camera and 35mm f/1.4 aspheric lens on Kodachrome 200 slide film. Purchase Fine Art Print | License Image
Essaouira, Morocco
My Lonely Planet guide described the Atlantic Coast town of Essaouira as an undiscovered jewel, which is surely the travel equivalent of the kiss of death. The city ramparts looked unchanged since Orson Welles shot “Othello” here on a shoestring in the fifties, but an invading army of pudgy pink tourists in bad clothes had […]
Casablanca, Morocco
My trip to Casablanca seemed like a good idea, anyway. But warm sunshine and exotic locales always sound good in the middle of a Seattle winter. Visions of the luminous Indrid Bergman don’t hurt, either. I knew the city’s namesake movie was shot in a Hollywood backlot more than half a century ago, but the […]
Casablanca, Morocco
I am sitting in the worst cab on earth. Hurtling through pea soup fog at 120 km/hour in a godforsaken gypsy taxi with shot suspension, missing muffler. One lone wiper scrapes the windshield without a blade against the gloom. Pavement is visible rushing past my feet, while my ass sticks halfway through the backseat, and […]
