Marrakech Time.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

MOROCCO | Monday, 23 August 2010 | Views [525]

Another day at the butcher’s shop. While the young apprentice cuts the meat (lamb, cow or camel) the old man stares vacantly in front of him, waiting for a customer or perhaps vaguely recalling every day of his life that began exactly like this. The monotonousness of life in the souk can be oppressing and yet strangely liberating as you become acutely aware of the ephemeral, transitory nature of this one moment in the timeless life of the souk.

Tags: the butchers shop.

Marrakech, the souk: the heart of town. Early in the morning, while the tourists are still asleep in their luxurious riads (traditional Moroccan houses with an interior garden), the narrow streets of the medina are already swarming with men in djellabas and women hiding their faces behind chadras, going about their business the way they have been doing for centuries. Every day, within the ancient walls of the medina, the same daily ritual is repeated as men and women haggle for various goods over a glass of hot mint tea. Rays of sunlight through the palm-frond roof illuminate the mind-boggling variety of wares—from silver Berber jewellery, blue-glazed Fassi ceramics, argan oil, brassware, tajine spices, meats, snails, magic potions, lanterns, freshly dyed saffron and vermillion wool, djellabas and purses to sequin-dotted leather camel toys, babouches (traditional leather slippers), burnooses (hooded capes) and magic carpets.

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In the butcher’s souk you can find anything you can imagine, from plucked chickens to camel liver, goat heads, camel heads and sheep brain, all ‘tastefully’ displayed on the counter or hanging over it. Amidst live chickens squawking in cages, waiting to be weighed, and scrawny cats prowling underneath the counters bedecked with tongues and lungs, this old man, focused on his work, seems to exist only in the moment even though he must have performed exactly the same movements hundreds of times, on days exactly like this one.

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Marrakech Time.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

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