Dear Reader (2025-11-08 – posted simultaneously to FB)
It has taken me longer than usual to write today’s post and the next post, as my thoughts were even more jumbled than usual. In these two posts you and I are visiting the M’zab Valley where there is a pentopolis (a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities). The five towns of this pentopolis are Beni Isguene, el-Ateuf, Melika, Bou Nouara, and Ghardaia. The latter is the largest of the five, and is often used to refer to all five towns. Ghardaia, founded c 1100, is not a walled village. The other villages are walled ones, and access to them requires a guide. This area is the home of Ibadi religious sect in Algeria.
The Ibadi religion in its current form is one of formal codes of behaviour founded on Berber beliefs and practices overlaid by Islam. For instance married women wear a white gown and shawl called a hayek. They hold the shawl with hidden hands in such a way that one eye is the only visible part of their bodies. The only visible clothing distinction among women wearing the hayek are their shoes. It is forbidden to photography women wearing the hakek. Within the walled villages photographing people is also forbidden, and if your guide catches you photographing people (especially adults) then the tour is immediately brought to an end.
In this post you and I wander through the streets of three villages of the pentopolis.
References (For those interested in rabbit holes, here are some starting points)
~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentapolis
~ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berber
~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharda%C3%AFa
~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibadism
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As always, all comments are welcome and sought.
Cheers, Sean
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All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2017-2025
I’m struggling here. Their country, their rules, I get that. I like a challenge, and working within limitations is one way of producing interesting images, or at the least make you break out of your photographic ruts.
I’ve done enough unscripted people photography to know that the unexpected and unintended can happen. People wander in or out of frame, or turn suddenly. Here, there are typically no consequences, but knowing that a mistake will ruin the experience for other people would make taking photos very difficult for me.
But even though these places might be teeming with life, they remind me of an empty movie set awaiting the actors to come back from lunch.
But these images
Keith, thank you once again for the wealth of comments!