Morocco: Sahara to the Sea

With a preface by Paul Bowles, whose expatriate residence in Tangier helped to locate that city in the literary firmament, and an introduction by Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, winner of the Prix Goncourt and the Mediterraneo Prize, Morocco: Sahara to the Sea presents a vivid portrait of a timeless land and its strongly independent people.

But there's something wrong with this postcard-like album, and it's modern life, carefully excised from nearly every picture. Morocco celebrates the non-Western and the old. The two brief forewords by the eminent writers Paul Bowles and Tahar Ben Jelloun set the tone, lauding Olde Morocco ("The beauty of the countryside is never flawed") and implicitly disdaining its modern counterpart. If a photographic collection is to portray reality, however, it has to record the full range of life, not just the exotic and archaic. Only a very few scenes hint at a Morocco that's not timeless: in particular, one picture shows a building in downtown Marrakesh plastered with posters (in English) advertising "Police Action III" and "Platoon Leader." After so many scenes from centuries past, this one feels oddly authentic and even fresh. Had Cross only shown some children in cement schools, commuters in buses, and old men watching television, she would have captured not only the beauty of Morocco but also its current reality.

Middle East Quartely, June 1996