Photo Diary: Mirage Theory
Salam Alaikum (peace be upon you)—such is the warm welcome that greets Gareth Hemmings in Morocco, a surfside sanctuary dotted with brightly hued habitations and circum by North Atlantic swells. Serving as a welcome reprieve from the inferno back home, Gareth expeditiously points and shoots his Ricoh GR II at the coastal expanse, goated by surfers, photographers, and, it seems, even goats.
Photos: Gareth Hemmings.
Buckle up! Gareth's Photo Diary is a passenger-seat perspective from Taghazout to Imsouane, exhibiting the high-and-low trappings of deep-horizon discovery. We couldn't be any more envious. Read Gareth's account below.
One of my closest friends had just landed in London, crashing on the floor of my lounge during a heatwave. We were both craving the ocean and desperate to escape the concrete oven that London had become. It wasn’t peak swell season, but when some cheap flights to Morocco popped up, we hit go. We flew into Agadir and then took a mellow taxi ride out to Taghazout. I took the dirt bike photo during this ride, and it ended up being my favourite shot from the trip. The colour blue is deeply embedded in Moroccan culture and history, and I was stoked to capture it in such a modern way.
We knew the surf would be small, but we didn’t expect it to be completely flat. We wandered over to local spots like Killer Point and Banana Point, eating food, drinking Coke, and snapping pics along the way. The emptiness of the off-season was a surprise and made for some eerie moments—walking along beaches bordered by silent resorts, covered in empty lounge chairs and sleepy stray dogs.
By the weekend, Taghazout exploded with European tourists, and it was cool to see the town change like that. The open ocean swell picked up to two metres, so Liam and I rented a car and drove up to Imsouane every day. It had an amazing longboard wave that wrapped around a point, plus a fun beachie out front, sheltered in a bay surrounded by massive desert cliffs. Raw and beautiful. The deep, cool blue of the Atlantic against the warm desert colours was unreal. Add in the vibrant local culture, and it’s a photographer’s dream. If you’re driving that way, keep cash on hand for the traffic cops—they’ll demand money for any violation they claim you’ve committed. It’s a total scam. And don’t eat the salads—stick to the well-cooked tagines. I learned that the hard way. On the way back to Taghazout, I had a shit experience (literally) in the rental car, which only added to the low of paying off cops.
I wasn’t in Morocco to shoot—I was there to relax and surf—but I carried my Ricoh GR II around every day, snapping moments that caught my eye. It wasn’t until I got home and started editing the photos that I realised I had some good snaps! I’d love to spend more time there. Next time, photography will be my main focus. I highly recommend it as a photo trip—it’s a bonus that the surf pumps too.
Check out more of Gareth's work, HERE.
