22 frames · Africa · 2013

Land of the Setting Sun

In Arabic, Morocco is called al-Maghrib — “the West”, “the place where the sun sets”. To those who first gave the land this name, it was the edge of the known world: beyond it lay only the ocean.

This project is a road to that edge. It begins in the desert, where there is nothing but sand, wind and light, and people appear only as a chain of silhouettes along the crest of a dune. Then sand turns into clay: oases, kasbah walls, the first houses. Clay gives way to blue. In the narrow streets of a mountain town people go about their lives, cats doze on the steps, and the day unfolds at its own unhurried pace. And at the end, the road meets the Atlantic, where gulls — yet another kind of inhabitant — circle above the fortress walls.

I walked this land as a guest and never tried to pass for one of its own. What drew me was something else: how light — ochre in the desert, blue in the shade of city walls, golden over the ocean — tells more about a country than words can. Here the sun does not simply set. It shapes the colour, the rhythm of the day, and even the name of the land itself.

The series ends where the Maghrib ends: on the shore, in the last light of the day.

View the series

Hazy mountain ridges near Hurghada, Egypt, lit by the setting sun — 01 / 22

A dusty road and water in a ditch in golden light against the sun, with a car under spreading acacias in the distance, Kenya — 02 / 22

Camel drivers leading camels along the crest of a dune against the sun, Sahara Desert, Morocco — 03 / 22

A camel caravan on the slope of a huge sand dune, Sahara, Morocco — 04 / 22

A lone tree among orange dunes, with mountains under a cloudy sky behind, Morocco — 05 / 22

Orange Sahara dunes and a tuft of dry grass under a starry night sky, Morocco — 06 / 22

The Milky Way above the dark red crest of a dune in the Sahara, Morocco — 07 / 22

Earthen houses above a palm oasis, with mountains in pink haze beyond, Morocco — 08 / 22

An earthen kasbah and palms at the foot of the mountains, with two people on the road, Morocco — 09 / 22

A boy in blue by open red gates, with a courtyard and building work behind, Morocco — 10 / 22

A cat stretching on the stones of a narrow blue lane in Chefchaouen, Morocco — 11 / 22

A woman in a purple djellaba carrying a bucket down a blue lane in Chefchaouen, with cats nearby, Morocco — 12 / 22

A man in a worn jacket on a blue street in Chefchaouen, with an archway and a passer-by behind, Morocco — 13 / 22

A woman in a pink robe with a broom by a blue wall and door, Chefchaouen, Morocco — 14 / 22

An elderly man in a hooded djellaba with a cane sitting on steps as people walk past, Chefchaouen — 15 / 22

A woman in a pink djellaba by a doorway and a ginger cat on the steps of a blue street in Chefchaouen, Morocco — 16 / 22

An elderly woman sitting by a carved door with mosaic tiles, a ginger cat asleep beside her, Fez, Morocco — 17 / 22

Blue fishing boats by a fortress wall and tower in Essaouira, with gulls overhead, Morocco — 18 / 22

Gulls over a white house with blue doors and a person on the stairs, Essaouira, Morocco — 19 / 22

A gull on a stone wall, with a fortress tower and the Atlantic behind, Essaouira — 20 / 22

The rocky Atlantic shore and a white walled town, with gulls flying over the water, Essaouira — 21 / 22

A flock of gulls against the setting sun above the silhouettes of domes, Essaouira, Morocco — 22 / 22

About the series

The series was shot in Morocco in 2013. Al-Maghrib is the Arabic name for Morocco; it literally means “the west”, the place where the sun sets. The 22 frames move toward sunset: from the Sahara desert, through the earthen kasbahs and the blue city of Chefchaouen with its inhabitants, to the Atlantic Ocean at Essaouira and an evening sky with gulls over the water.

The series brings together two of the author’s early projects, “Inhabitants of the Blue City” and “Land of the Setting Sun”, with which he was admitted to the Russian Union of Art Photographers in 2015.

Works from the series available as prints

A thin clear slab of ice standing like a sail among the hummocks of Lake Baikal

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