By Seda Akay
My name is Seda, and I’m based in Istanbul in Turkey. In these photos, you are just going to see the Atlantic Ocean and daily life of Moroccan people in Asilah. It is their routine, but not usually mine.
In Summer, 2016 I went to Marrakech, Morocco for a volunteer job to help NGOs with their business education. For the last week of my Morocco adventure, I travelled to north with a bunch of amazing friends from Greece and Egypt. We started our journey from Fes and finished it in Asilah, about half an hour by train from the port of Tangier. Even though we only spent five or six hours in Asilah, it is one of most important destinations on my trip, and high on my ‘must return’ list.
I am originally from Antalya, Turkey. The Mediterranean Sea and its bright white and blue colours are important touchstones in my life. Whenever I smell the sea, whenever I see the white and blue colours, I feel like I am going back to my childhood and teenage years.
Asilah brought back those teenage memories, and I will never forget it. There is art and graffiti on every corner, a place where you can feel the wind and smell the ocean everywhere.
When we arrived in Asilah, it was windy as crazy and I thought that the weather was going to spoil the day, but we still managed to have fun. People always smile at you. The residents of Asilah live the “moment” next to the ocean… You can see their laid-back personality on their faces. Most people would choose the souks, bazaars and brightly-painted old city house of Morocco’s cities as their inspiration – this in a different way to remember the country. A most colourful way…
During the journey, my best friend was the film camera I was given from my photographer neighbour, the Nikon F65. I used a 50mm f1.8 lens that I bought myself and used LOMOgraphy’s own Color Negative 400ISO film.
- Asilah on a Nikon F65 - 21/04/2019
