The Moroccan photographer pays ode to his childhood memories and his family in his first solo show
Self-trained Moroccan photographer and visual artist, Ismail Zaidy, draws inspiration from his family and heritage for his current and first solo exhibition, 3aila, at Hassan Hajjaj’s Riad Yima in Marrakech. His sharp and ultra-graphic photography has gained a cult following, with dream-like minimalistic elements drawing on his culture and everyday life. His images are not just sublime to look at, they also carry a deeper meaning: he aims to shut down the stereotypes associated with his country. Nataal meets the young talent.
What made you start photographing?
Photography is a family affair to me, and in 2018 I started a project named '3aila', family in English, with my younger brother. He's quite a creative person as well, together with my sister. They both play a huge part in developing the ideas behind the pictures and we also support each other in developing different concepts for new stories. I mainly use photography to express my inner point of view on some of the topics that I can't express through words. Most of the time I am a person who doesn't like to talk too much so the best medium that I have explored and found to express myself is through photography and imagery.
What inspires you?
When I was a kid, I used to live in a modest area in Marrakech where I was watching the way the women would wear their fabrics, hike and djelaba out on the streets. These women are still a huge inspiration for me today, and when I initiate a project I always try to show this side of my culture through my work. Starting in 2017, I was mainly capturing my surrounding environments in Morocco. Slowly I was getting comfortable as an artist and growing as a creative family, which I think led me to the minimal, abstract and poetic style of the pictures I capture today.
What is your work process?
My creative process starts from finding ideas, getting props from the flea market and then composing the stage for the photo shoot and directing my accomplices to shoot the final visual. Nonetheless, the process also depends on my siblings, finding time between their school schedules. All my pictures are taken on my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S5, and the accessibility of this tool is a great opportunity for many young photographers like me. Through its basic settings and low cost and the challenges and opportunities that come with it, I started to experiment with minimalist and abstract photography.
You use a lot of strong colours that contrast with the pastel backgrounds and environments. How do you select the tones for your photos?
I love pastel colours but since we, unfortunately, can't see it in our daily lives, I try to transfer my love to those colours into my photos. I think playing with colours and tones is a way of communicating my family’s problems as well as what's been put in place for us as a society. I believe each colour has a story, meaning and reason behind it, and sometimes the colours are purely based on the beauty it gives off to the image itself.
Your characters are often wearing face-covering fabrics. Why is that?
Some people are very good at getting a certain emotion out of people when photographing them. I’ve discovered that I can create the same effect without showing someone’s face. The image itself is the emotion.
You’ve received tremendous support from your local Moroccan community. How has that changed the way you work and the outcome of what you do?
The support I get doesn't change my way of work but has surely motivated me to work harder and reach only for the best results. I still carry the same process but now I thrive to only give my absolute best in everything I do.
3aila is on view from 22 February to 1 June, 2020, at Riad Yima, Marrakech