Through the Photographer’s Lens: Meeting Alan Keohane
British photographer Alan Keohane’s images of Moroccans are some of Morocco’s best known and most loved. His touching portraits of nomads with their camels, Berber women from the Atlas mountains, fantasia horsemen in full regalia, and young beauties preparing for hammam, can be found for purchase in upscale boutiques throughout Marrakech. I had long wondered who the photographer was behind the photos. What had brought him to Morocco? What magic allowed him to take such pictures of photography-shy Moroccans? A journalist’s privilege, I called him and asked if we might meet for an interview. He said yes.
Still Images, Alan Keohane’s photography studio, can be found on a discreet street in downtown Marrakech. A tidy and handsome man in his mid-40s, he answers the door himself when I ring. We sit down to coffee. Polite but reserved, Keohane pauses thoughtfully before answering my questions. Some of his answers surprise me but I would find that he was full of surprises during the two hours we were together.
Alan Keohane’s path to Morocco was an unusual one. In the early 1980s, as a student of photography in London, he had dreamt of taking pictures of Middle Eastern Bedouins in the desert. However, international jobs for young photographers were few and far between. Undaunted, after graduation he set off for North Africa and the Middle East. In order to fund his photography, Keohane became a trekking guide. With the money he earned, he would incrementally stay for weeks in the mountains and take photographs. His efforts would pay off with the 1991 publication of his first photographic book, Berbers of Morocco. With one book under his belt, Keohane secured a second book deal that would finance his original dream; Bedouin Nomads of the Desert was published in 1994, representing photographs taken over a more than three-year period.
In 1993, Alan Keohane moved definitively to Morocco. In the decade that followed, he would contribute photographs to numerous books, magazines and newspapers, including such prestigious publications as, the Observer and Telegraph magazines, Jeune Afrique, The New York Times and Marie Claire. Keohane also would go on to work on guidebooks, such as Eyewitness Guides and Insight Guides, the Moroccan edition of the latter, which he would also author. In a marked departure, in 1999 he became the principal fashion photographer for Morocco’s leading fashion magazine, Femmes du Maroc. Bored with runways and fashion shoots, in 2003 he formed his company, Still Images, and launched the publication of the Sepia Giclee art prints that have made him so well known in Marrakech. His prints are now sold in galleries around the world, including in San Francisco, Paris and Vienna, as well as Marrakech. He has exhibited his work in London, Edinburgh, Dubai, and Marrakech.
Despite his obvious success, Keohane remains modest and shyly sentimental. Notwithstanding the fact that his work is often sold out on the first night of his exhibits, he says that it is rare that he gets any form of feedback on his photography. He speaks with evident pleasure of a customer in New York who has described to him how she has framed one of his photographs and has emailed him with its location in her home. He also relates an encounter had at an exhibit of his work at Marrakech’s most exclusive hotel, the Amanjenna; when learning of the presence of a photography collector, Keohane feels compelled to ask the collector if his work “is any good” and is relieved when told that it is on par with the work of other well known photographers. When I ask Keohane which are his favorite photographs, he points to a series of images taken of the fantasia horsemen of Morocco and speaks with passion of the ancient traditions that the men are seeking to preserve. Posed, these portraits of the horsemen with their weathered faces have a timeless quality to them, and capture their pride before Keohane’s lens. Keohane also shows me another of his favorite photographs – a picture of desert dunes that has at its center the tiny image of a person; looking down at the computer screen, he tells me that the photograph is special to him because the small figure is his wife.
I ask Alan what the secret is to his images. How does he cajole Moroccans into letting him take such intimate pictures of them? He tells me that the secret lies in the ability to create trust with the people whom he is photographing. This is no easy matter in a place that Keohane calls, one of the hardest countries in the world to take photographs. He likens the average experience for a Moroccan as similar to what you might feel if someone cut through your back yard and walked into your house, unasked, and snapped a photo -- invasive and a bit shocking. So Keohane has spent days, if not weeks or months, building the relationships that will allow him to take the photographs he wants. For example, in pursuit of photographs of Moroccan nomads in the desert, he once asked the oldest camel driver on a beach to take him for a trip into the desert. The camel driver asked the duration of the trip – a few hours? Overnight? Keohane’s response: one month. So off they went, Keohane with nothing but his cameras in a small bag and the clothes on his back. Sleeping with a borrowed blanket, the pair spent days with the camel driver’s friends and family, roaming to different encampments. Quiet, Keohane managed to somehow just blend in. It was only when the guard of the Bedouins came down that the camera emerged from his little bag. The result: photographs with rare honesty.
When I ask him if, as a photographer, he feels Morocco is special, he responds by saying: No other country has the range of landscape and the diversity of tribal culture that is still so pure today in Morocco. In Saudi Arabia, people have camels and tents as a hobby. In Morocco, they remain an economic necessity. This is part of the reason that Morocco has kept its culture, while the indigenous culture of a number of other countries has been diluted.
All of Alan Keohane’s prints are produced in his studio, Still Images, Morocco’s first fine art digital printer. Keohane also prints on water resistant canvas with stunning results. His portfolio can be seen at www.alankeohane.com.
All images owned by Alan Keohane. Images may not be reproduced in any form without Keohane's written permission.
