Photographing Essaouira, Morocco

After seeing Essaouira on an episode of Africa Calling by adventurous German motorcyclists Erik Peters and Alain Beger https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DSLJgWks3/. I was struck by the beauty of Essaouira, a fishing port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and decided to look into visiting it.

I was further inspired to go there after reading an article on photographing the town by another German, the photographer Michael Breitung which was very interesting and made my planning easier. You can read Michael's article here https://www.mibreit-photo.com/blog/essaouira-photography-guide/

It was a last minute decision to jump on a plane from Glasgow in early April to escape the Scottish rain, and see Essaouira before the temperatures in Morocco sky rocketed to seething heat over the summer. It took me two planes to fly into Essaouira from Glasgow. A flight to London Stansted, a 7 hour wait (ouch!) and then a direct flight to Essaouira that landed early evening.

Flying into Essaouira on an April evening.

I'd decided to fly into Essaouira from London and stay a few days, before heading to Marrakech (more on that in my next blog post) as I'd never actually visited Morocco before. I stayed at Dar Emma in the heart of the Medina and I'd highly recommend it. Beautiful and traditional, but a modernised house in the centre of Essaouira's Medina and owned by the incredibly helpful Emma. You can see this and her other accommodation's on her website www.castlesinthesand.com. Highly recommended!

I really wanted to try and capture a similar image to the excellent one in Michael Breitung's article which required dawn light and a high tide to create, and as luck would have it, the stars aligned for my first morning in Essaouira, so it was an early 6am alarm with all my gear ready for the short walk down to the harbour walls for the best light, high waters and some cloud cover for a perfect skyline. I did not need the alarm call that morning as the Call to Prayer from the Medina mosque woke me anyway. I thought this would have been a recorded call, but it was actually a real man, maybe amplified, but certainly singing / calling out live. What a voice he has to be fair!

I followed Michael Breitung's instructions and climbed up on to the harbour wall, for the best view of the sea defence wall and the ramparts to Essaouira to watch the sunrise, and it was worth the effort. What a sight as the pink dawn light spread slowly out over the ramparts. Beautiful. There was only me and a local fishermen about who were unloading their catch from the working harbour. Very special to be able to photograph them and the dawn over Essaouira.

'Castelo Real de Mogodor in Essaouira, Morocco at dawn'

'Fishermen at dawn in Essaouira, Morocco'

'Fishermen at dawn in Essaouira, Morocco'

'Fishing boats in the harbour at dawn in Essaouira, Morocco'

The rest of my time in Essaouira, I wondered the Medina and Kasbah of the old part of Essaouira and allowed myself to get lost in the winding streets and alleyways. I also enjoyed the underground tunnels that actually go underneath the buildings of the Medina, that have been built above over hundreds of years. Some of the tunnels have small shops or restaurants, and some like in the image below are access passages for walking from one side of the medina to the other, and you do a lot of walking as cars do not have access to most parts of the Medina.

'Tunnels beneath the Medina in Essaouira'

The ramparts are a stunning part of the city. Built for protection from marauding armies and to protect Essaouira from the wild Atlantic ocean that constantly crashes onto the rocks on the other side of these high city walls. It's very nice to wander them in the mornings before the day trippers arrive. I spent a good few hours here each morning before 11am virtually alone watching the wild ocean through the cannon slots built into the ramparts.

'Ramparts in Essaouira'

Esssaouira does have an influx of tourists who visit from other cities such as Marrakech (3 hours away) and Casablanca (4 hours) so I found the mornings to be my favourite time on the ramparts. I would have liked to photograph the ramparts from the harbour in the evening as the sun sets from the west and the light was very nice, but sadly all the sunsets when I was there had many hundreds of people on the harbour walls and scrambling all over the rocks to enjoy the view. You cant blame them as its stunning but for me and photography, dawn was the preferable time to use the cameras. See the images below for the hordes of day trippers making photography somewhat pointless during the late afternoons.

While I loved the ramparts during the morning, they do suffer from an over proliferation of tourist type shops that get busy in the afternoons and early evening. So I ventured away and deeper into the Medina and found an area to the north east of the city that was virtually tourist free, and the place where the locals were. It was a stunning and authentic part of town and became the area I spent a lot of time during the day. It's called the Mellah or Jewish Quarter. Historically many Jewish people lived in this area, and while that has changed over the years, it is now home to many locals in Essaouira and was a fabulous place to photograph with dilapidated, colourful buildings and many authentic markets full of locals going about their business. For me, photography heaven........

'The Mellah or Jewish Quarter of Essaouira'

The Mellah or Jewish Quarter of Essaouira

The Mellah or Jewish Quarter of Essaouira

'The markets in Essaouira'

I was told that photographing people in Morocco was extremely difficult, and I'd say this is true, as in general Moroccans do not like to be photographed by tourists or foreigners. Personally I love to photograph people's faces, however I always ask for permission before doing so, and I did manage to find some people in Essaouira happy to allow me to do this, especially after a chat, a smile or a laugh about something. So here are a few of the friendly faces of Essaouira;

'Nadhim in the Mellah of Essaouira'

'Rashid - A man who can get you anything' - Essaouira

'Hassan - Essaouira'

'Three Amigos - Essaouira'

After a wonderful few days in Essaouira it was time to say goodbye and head to Marrakech. Hopefully I will return to Essaouira as I enjoyed my time here very much. A beautiful city, wonderful light and in the main, friendly people. The food was good with plenty of Tajine and seafood here, however as much as I enjoyed the black tea, I did miss a nice cold beer in the late afternoons but that was impossible to find in traditional Essaouira.

To travel the 3 and a half hours to Marrakech you have two options. Either a private transfer in a taxi which costs roughly €100 or a €12 Supratours coach which is the option I chose and it was simple and easy to to via the website https://12go.asia/en/operator/supratours

A man gathering shellfish in Essaouira

'There's a storm coming' - Essaouira

'The wild Atlantic at Essaouira'

'Dawn at the Ramparts - Essaouira'

See you next time Essaouira................