Mohamed Maradji

Mohamed Maradji was born in Casablanca in 1939. In 1956, aged sixteen, he began as a street photographer in his home city, taking portraits of passers-by for a dirham a picture. He became a press photographer in the years after Moroccan independence in 1956, and his career grew with the new state.

He has photographed the official and public life of Morocco under three kings — Mohammed V, Hassan II and Mohammed VI — including royal ceremonies, travels and visits by foreign leaders. His archive is a visual history of the Moroccan monarchy and of the country over more than half a century, and the Moroccan press has long called him the photographer of the three kings. In interviews he has spoken about the care he took over appearance from his youth, a theme of one Aujourd'hui le Maroc profile.

He has published books including Les Trois monarques, presented to Mohammed VI in 2016, Maradji : Témoin de son époque, a roughly 400-page survey of fifty years of his work that appeared at the end of 2010 (sources vary on its exact title and date), and Mohammed VI l'Africain (2019, La Croisée des chemins), about the king's travels on the continent; TelQuel reported in 2018 that it was still being prepared.

How to read Maradji: it is the official record of a state, so look at what the camera is positioned to see — ceremonies, handshakes and arrivals — and at the street portraits that came before. The two kinds of picture belong to different Moroccos. That reading is this site's own.

Where to see the work

The books are the main way to see it; Le Desk, Aujourd'hui le Maroc and TelQuel have profiled him and the books. We have not confirmed a museum holding. A very different Moroccan photography can be seen in the work of Leila Alaoui and Hassan Hajjaj. See our lists of Moroccan photographers and African photographers.