I did a quick shoot with LA punk rock band The Descendants in Brixton Academy and lucked out with 2 free tickets to their show. Great guys great band. Special thanks to Sylvia and David of Destiny Tourbooking in Berlin.
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Eastbourne beach
In memory of Jon Egging
I went down to Eastbourne over the weekend to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday. He was a wing commander and navigator with the RAF during WWII and is always able to pluck out amazing stories of those and other events of his incredible life.
Upon seeing this photograph, he asked if I could dedicate it to Jon Egging, the Red Arrows pilot who tragically died the day before. So this one’s for you Jon. May you rest in peace.
Eastbourne Pier
Guns N’ Horses
I was with Greg and Charlie, in the Moroccan coastal town of Essaouira, for the annual Gnawa music festival.
We had a great couple of days wandering around, taking in the fresh fishy breezes and absorbing the scorching sunlight. This photo was taken on the beach during a gunmen charging towards the audience, whilst firing rifles into the air, on spluttering horses display. Unusual, but captivating.
No photos please…
It was the last leg of our journey before finally reaching the desert true. We had refueled, bought our water (one cold and one frozen for the next day) and our scarves to shield our faces from the sand.
We came to a slow halt in a long line of traffic, so Ibrahim steered the van around and headed back to the gas station. A young guy who worked there jumped in and directed us along a route that would take us around the road block. We cruised down side streets, passed resting donkeys and children who were peering out of windows and door cracks. Men standing around having conversations paused to watch us pass. I commented on how lucky we were to be driving through a side of town that no other tourists would come across. The van was stifling hot at times so I leaned on the edge of my window. The breeze outside, although dense, felt refreshing on my face.
The road gradually turned into a pebble track and we found ourselves driving through rural land. A couple of farmers moved their donkey cart for us and Ibrahim skillfully steered over a bridge as narrow as our van was wide. Driving along a wall, I noticed a couple of guys running in our direction and said ‘hey it looks like they’re coming to say hi!’ Another group of guys carrying a tree trunk and rocks dropped them 20 yards in front of us, creating a new block. We realised we were not so welcome in this area when around 200 men sprinted in from nowhere, surrounded our van and screamed ragingly at us.
Ibrahim and the guy who had directed us here were summoned out the van and the 7 of us sat reservedly inside, not giving too much eye contact to the guys prowling around the van. Some were tapping rocks together and appeared hungry for a bit of “let’s stone some tourists” action. The scariest thing was that there was no hierarchy or unity within their group. Some of them spat words at each other and saliva to the ground between irate sentences and hand gestures. I tried to start a game of I Spy with Kevin. My letter was P – for people. Shit loads of them. Ibrahim and the other guy were still outside, but would give us reassuring looks whilst calmly negotiating us out of the situation.
Ibrahim later explained that we had been in disputed territory and the locals were angry that we had failed to respect the original road block. Note to self…
Well, I’m here typing this up and am obviously safe, but I have to admit to fearing the very worst during our excruciatingly slow 3600 seconds of sitting around, wondering how the day would end. I was itching to take photographs, but knew I would jeopardize our safety if I did. Alex Webb would have had a field day with the layers of dusk lit compositional eye candy, that was forming outside my window.
Shortly after reaching some kind of agreement with a group elders that showed up, we were released and the road block was lifted. Ibrahim started the van and only managed to drive 30 feet or so before breaking down to a chugging halt. Ibrahim’s head fell despairingly onto his forearms that were exhaustedly slouched flush against the steering wheel. The rest of us got out to push the van onto the road ahead and grouped in to help fix it.
A guy that had been yelling at us moments before, cycled up and offered his assistance. The van eventually got fixed and we went on our way to the Sahara desert. Another adventure was about to begin, but I was relieved for this one to be over.
Syma Types
It was great to catch up with Syma in Brixton Market whilst she was over from Lisbon.
Bike Polo in Alicante
I stayed with Roberto and Paloma in Alicante in May. Great to catch up and see them so happy together in their amazing flat.
Roberto goes to play bike polo after work and invited me to come along to watch a practice. Some people approached them after the game to find out more about their bikes, so I hope they can make the sport more widespread.
It was fun trying to meter, frame, focus and shoot on perhaps the most inappropriate camera to use for this kind of event! Total respect to Hasselblad sports photographers from the days of old.
Click here to see these a little bit bigger.
River runs through it
I loved how lush greenery would cut through dessert terrain in a seemingly random way. They have irrigated as much of the area as possible, making life much easier in what could have easily been a parched landscape.
Sahara Film Set
I can’t name any of them, but a load of films were made here apparently. Ibrahim, our tour guide, was a driver for the production of Prince of Persia. Apparently there were thousands of applicants and I’m really glad he was one of the successful ones who benefited from an American salary for a month.
Apart from negotiating us out of a standoff with 200 fierce angry Moroccan men surrounding our van, he sang us traditional Berber songs and gave us all stomach aches from laughing with him. If you’re on the 3 day dessert tour from Marrakesh and your driver is called Ibrahim, chances are you’re going to have a brilliant and safe trip.
Anthony Wallace 
