Playing Dolls Boy's Style
Eastern Morocco, somewhere near Algeria.
I went to this market because it was supposed to be frequented by nomads selling their flocks of sheep in this unpopulated area. Many of the men selling had walked nearly a hundred miles with their sheep because they thought they would get the best price here. Although there was a village nearby there was not much to see, just rocky, dusty desert filled with animals and their djellabla wearing owners.
I tried to get some shots with the men dickering over the sheep. I didn’t ask anyone to pose; I thought they would either ignore me or tell me to “get lost”. They were conducting business. Once a man, who was dressed in slacks, sandals and a pullover sweater, shabby though they were, stepped out to pose for me ala GQ. And I shot a very handsome young man who was relaxing with his friends drinking tea.
Those photos don’t say as much as this photo of two boys who are deep into play. Where they found the doll, I don’t know. Perhaps a village child lost it. To the boy’s minds the doll becomes something to pursue, to chase and to frighten. The boy on the right has two twigs and he is stalking the doll as if he were a wolf. The boy holding the doll, who is supposedly in danger, thinks it is funny. He seems to be exposing the doll to danger as if he is waiting to see what will happen when the ‘wolf’ catches the doll. Quite different from the way two girls would play, don’t you think?
"Mr. GQ"
Maybe I should have entitled this blog “Body Language”. Mr. GQ’s body language shows that he feels rather proud of himself, maybe it’s because he is wearing western clothing and not the traditonal djellaba. He is proud of his goat as well or he imagines it adds to the portrait, and it does.
- The Only Woman at the Market
I think this woman must feel very uncomfortable at the market. She seems to be trying to become invisible. Her body language says she is not used to being out of her home and away from the women of her family. She feels vulnerable. I imagine it is like that dream that we all have where we are in a public place in a state of undress. Oh, I hate that dream!
I’m back as you can see. I got my computer yesterday and have all of my data. For this I thank Carbonite which is a back up system using ‘cloud’ storage. If you have a lot of data, especially photos on your computer, I recommend using Carbonite. It costs less than an external hard drive and it won’t break…I guess they have a cloud backup. I don’t really know how it works, but I had no anxiety about my data while my computer was being repaired.