During our first look at the young Moroccan photography scene, we mentioned Tswira, a platform whose editors scours Instagram and Facebook in search of new talent. On January 23rd, Tswira held a virtual exhibition, Igmirien: Voyage dans le Far West Chinois (Journey to Far West China), that raised several questions. Who is Igmirien? Why did photographer and Tswira founder Ali Berrada decide to feature this exhibition in particular?
Abdela Igmirien is 25 years old. He comes from a small village named Igmir near Tafraoute, Morocco. A topographical engineer by profession, Igmirien realized that photography—specifically, portraits and street scenes—was his true calling. He first traveled to Shanghai to document daily life there, drawing inspiration both from fellow street photographers in the city, as well as from Japanese photographer Daidō Moriyama. In 2012, Igmirien moved to Beijing and found a rich arts scene, which made him want to go further in his work, filling out the background and providing more context.
In Beijing, most of the people Igmirien met thought that he was Chinese when he spoke Mandarin, assuming that he was of Uyghur ethnicity, the population of the Uighur Autonomous Region in Xinjiang, China. The comparison aroused the photographer’s curiosity, and he decided to travel alone to the Far West of China where conflicts between government and the local population persist.
Igmirien set out with his camera and iPhone, which he preferred for its simplicity and speed. He arrived in Kashgar, described as the former jewel of the Silk Road, located halfway between Ankara and Beijing, then on to Lake Karakul, 196 kilometers from Kashgar. From there, everything seemed familiar, from the architecture to the clothing of the people he saw in the street. Everyone thought he was from the region. Only here, people spoke not Mandarin but Uyghur. When he explained that he was a foreigner, they thought he was from Central Asia, and they knew Morocco as Marrakech. With the help of a friend who spoke the language, Igmirien shot a series of color images showing his journey through Uighur country, his encounters, the landscapes, architecture—all the elements bearing a strong resemblance to his region of Morocco. On Instagram, each of his photographs is accompanied by a story about his encounter with the person or landscape pictured.
