With travel now opening up generally, where are you planning to go next? What are your fondest travel memories?
I still fondly remember walking down narrow alleyways of the walled city in Chefchaouen where every door, walk, step and adornment was dunked in a rich blue color. After immersing myself in the hustle and bustle of a working medina during the day, I returned back early the following morning to capture the place in silence, where the only sounds were those of a barking dog and a crowing rooster.
Chefchaouen
Morocco
Bathed in Blue
Its not often that that you find yourself in a city bathed in blue. So when you get the chance, take it. Visiting the blue medina of Chefchaouen, and wandering through narrow alleys amidst blue-washed houses was a highlight of my trip here.
Chefchaouen
Morocco
Portals
The darvaza, or a doorway, signifies many things in many cultures, ranging from the metaphysical separation of the death from life, to the more mundane indoors from the outdoors. As a photographer, perhaps the appeal lies in its ability to frame the organic shapes and colors of the outdoor with a well-defined man-made structure.
I collated three such doorways from different parts of the world: the doorway of an outer portico for the Taj Mahal-inspired Bibi ka Maqbara in India, an arched window in the kasbah in Chefchaouen in Morocco, and the stone-hewed entrance of an old caravanserai on the Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan. Each are different, and yet, they share the intrinsic property that is common for a darvaza.
Cats of Chefchaouen
During the downtime of the winter days, I often go back to clean my archives and find interesting photos from them. In trying to juggle different priorities in the summer, I hardly get time to do this, and hence, I get perennially backlogged, to the point that I am editing photos from more than 3 years ago.
I discovered this group of images of cats in a medina while editing photos from my travels to Morocco. I was wandering around the narrow alleyways that wound through the blue-washed walls of Chefchaouen when I noticed that there were cats everywhere. Having grown up in human presence, they were completely unperturbed by the thronging crowds of the medina, and were hard to photograph. Hence I returned to those locations early in the morning, and found the cats to be far more active and playful. Here are few that caught my attention and became strong memories of my travels to Chefchaouen.
Chefchaouen
Morocco
A Blue Oasis
I stepped away from the main thoroughfare of Chefchaouen, a long wide alley lined with shops selling tourist curios and colorful spices that wound its way through the dense hillside town. The alleys were crowded with early spring tourists and residents going about their daily routines, and I wanted to explore the more remote parts of this village. The blues continued on however, a never-ending fabric of paint that coated the city.
Chefchaouen was this magical oasis of blue in the brown dusty hill-slopes in north-eastern Morocco. The medina had gained its blue hues in the late 15th century as it received its first influx of Jewish migrants, and it stuck to this ever since. And the blues doesn't feel overwhelming, as the subtleties in the different shades of blue ensure that one alley looks different from the other. One would be hard-pressed to escape from the blue until you step out of the medina, but there are spots where the underlying brown bricks become visible, as it was in this narrow residential alleyway, complete with a tall ladder also painted blue.
Chefchaouen
Morocco
Blue Hour at the Blue City
To visit Morocco is like turning the pages of some illuminated Persian manuscript all embroidered with bright shapes and subtle lines
Edith Wharton
Search for Chefchaouen and you get dazzling imagery of vibrant blue alleys and embroidered doorways framing the everyday life of the local community which thrives there. I got very absorbed exploring the innumerable unnamed streets, staring at artwork in colorful cul-de-sacs, enjoying the local children playing games, eyeing the variety of carpets and spices on sale in the souvenir stores, and catching the odd glimpse of feline denizens who seem to have command of the town with a calm demeanor.
I decided to take a step back to see how it was actually laid out, and until I got to that vista point, I never realized the scale of that town. From high above, the medina was a smorgasbord of "blue"-washed concrete buildings smashed together high up in the up on the hillside, with orange street-lights highlighting the thoroughfares snaking up the hills and highlighting the mosques that acted as focal points for the medina.I tried to imagine how it would have been a few decades ago, a thriving community of traders nestled high in the mountains. And how now, we, as tourists, get the opportunity and resources to visit places like these....
The Blue Line
One of my fondest memories of Morocco was the hours I spent wandering through the narrow alleys of Chefchaouen, the "blue" village. I had envisioned a beautiful old medina swathed in blue, replete with old markets hawking tourist knick knacks, cramped hotels and airy riads lined along labyrinthine alleys rubbing shoulders with intricately decorated mosques, and a place devoid of locals. Yet, what I found there was much much more.
Instead of a touristed village, I instead found myself in a living medieval village. Narrow alleyways were bustling with small bakeries and grocery stores, with children being dragged by their parents to school, with kids enjoying an afternoon game of soccer, with parents off to the evening prayers or to the refreshing waters of a nearby waterfall. Despite the crowds, I found nooks and crannies of peace in the hidden alleys of the village.
Nevertheless, I returned in the morning, and wandered the empty streets devoid of people, with shuttered shops and no other color apart from the blue, the lifeline of the village.
Chefchaouen
Morocco
You can find one more spectacular image from Chefchaouen in my 2018 calendar. All proceeds will get donated to NRDC and WildAid,