Sara Benabdallah Captures the Soul of Morocco with Help from Her Grandma

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Sara Benabdallah’s photos sing with vibrant colors, depicting ancient architecture, contemporary textiles, and the women who make Marrakech tick. After spending time in the U.S., here’s how she fell back in love with her home country of Morocco.

SARA BENABDALLAH: I grew up in Marrakech, in the Medina, where my parents had a business renovating historic properties. My dad would renovate one while we lived in it, and when he finished, they would rent it to foreigners. Most of the people who came in the late 90s were artists, and in the summer, they would teach my sister and me. I was always known for being a photographer, in a way. That was my identity from day one.

When I was young, I didn’t have many friends who did arts, though. I was kind of an outcast. Plus, there was the whole sexist vibe in Morocco, especially at that time—much more than now. I didn’t feel comfortable as a young woman. I knew I wanted to go to America. When I left, I didn’t look back.

I spent some time in New York and then moved to LA. I started dating an American from the Midwest, so we traveled a lot. I saw really beautiful, wonderful things, but I also saw the reality of a lot of things.

After five or six years, I started to slowly get depressed. I felt disconnected from my roots. It was such a big dilemma because I knew so much about America, but when people asked me about Morocco, I didn’t really know a lot. It got to me, and I thought maybe I should go back.

We moved back two years ago, and it’s been really great since then. I was able to reconnect with my family. We’re working on a tea house in the oldest neighborhood in Marrakesh. Everything I thought I hated, I started to love. There are these abandoned buildings near my home, and I remember being like, “Oh, these are ugly,” and now I’m dying to go and shoot there. There are so many interesting things I would have never looked at before.

Sometimes, my best ideas come from sitting with my grandma, making bread or planting stuff. She’s been my muse. I’m very lucky, to be honest, because in Morocco, you rarely find a mother or grandmother willing to be photographed. But she’s very creative. Sometimes, going to art school can put you in a box, and she really helps me get out of that box because she has no box. When I get into a creative block, she’ll be like, “Let’s just go shoot. Let’s go, let’s do it.”

Follow Sara Benabdallah on Instagram.

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