It all started at the beginning of 2021, when my husband and I had the idea of creating a photography course that would show how we worked on location and touched on subjects we care deeply about: photography, of course, but also ethics, telling stories and meeting people.
Anyway, fast forward to March and Jorge (husband) and I are flying to Marrakech to meet up with a videographer friend who was coming all the way from Phoenix, Arizona to film this course.
Before I go on, let me explain why we chose Morocco. Having traveled and photographed there many many times, one of the questions we were always asked was HOW do we photograph there. Morocco is a notoriously difficult place to do 'people-based' photography and in large part it comes down to the culture: they are private people who like their intimacy. However, it also has a lot to do with respect, and how one approaches photographing the people there. So, when we decided to film the course, we wanted not only to explain, but show how we approached photographing in a place that is not particularly easy.
Right, so we are in Marrakech and things are going great production-wise. We've met a young group of wonderful and very talented moroccans who have taken us in and started sharing their lives with us when on day 3 (out of 10) of recording, we are told that wishing 24 hours the boarders into and out of Morocco would be closing.
We have a choice, we can either rush to the airport and hope to get onto one of the flights home (and all the filming would have been for nothing) OR take our chances and stay and finish our course. We chose the latter and our 10-day trip turned into one month of multiple cancelled flights, countless PCR tests (in case we did get onto a flight) and also, the best decision ever!
This past December we published the free online photography course on YouTube with the hope of inspiring others to explore, photograph and tell their own amazing stories and so far I looks like people are enjoying it.
I'll let you be the judge though ;)