I was lucky enough to spend a few unforgettable days last week in Marrakech. It was unforgettable because of the occasion, but also because it reminded me of my own limitations.

We were visiting the red city for the first time in celebration of our twenty years wedding anniversary (where did all that time go?). It had long been on both of our bucket lists. Marrakech holds such a cultural pull – that promise of North African, Moorish and exotic traditions colliding in its ancient buildings, souks and narrow streets. It did not disappoint.

It’s only when you are there that you realise that many of those tropes about the exotic, ancient, Middle Eastern/North African city we are familiar with from the movies probably originated in Marrakech. Snake charmers – check. Souks selling everything from golden lamps to colourful spices – check. Alleyways and narrow streets crowded with bicycles, motorbikes, donkeys, and all manner of traders carrying their wares – check. In fact, walking down those streets, dodging the oncoming motorcycles, did feel remarkably like you were in that famous chase scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

And whilst we were there to spend time together and celebrate our anniversary, I obviously could not pass up the opportunity to take plenty of pictures. And fortunately I have a very understanding wife who tolerates my photography obsession!

Walking around the Medina, there was just so much to photograph. Everywhere I looked there was an interesting scene. The souks provide a perfect backdrop for street photography – enclosed, narrow, bustling, chaotic, colourful, vibrant. I was a little bit nervous about taking pictures as I’d heard that it was getting more and more difficult to do so in the city. But I had no issues whatsoever as I made sure I wasn’t too obvious in terms of who I was photographing, avoided direct portrait style compositions, and respected shopkeepers who had had put up no photography requests on their stalls.

I decided to just bring my Fujifilm X100F with me on the trip. I toyed with the idea of a film camera as well but I’m glad I resisted. The digital sensor on the Fuji was just much better at dealing with the very variable lighting conditions in the souks. I cannot help feeling that with a film camera I might have got some great shots, but I may have equally come home with at least half of my shots being rejects. Digital reduces this risk. But the flipside is that I found myself shooting a lot more than I ever would have done with film (I’d have come home broke if I’d taken as many frames on film!). But then again, with the Fuji I could use it as an ‘off the hip’ street shooter which has a real benefit when you’re trying to be relatively discrete.

I’ve shared some of these street souk scenes. You’ll see that I’ve gravitated towards framing these compositions as 65:24 X-Pan style. I really love the way these classic panoramic dimensions help your eyes scan a scene, emulating the way our eyes naturally scan scenes horizontally in real life. I think the framing also helps to convey some of the immediacy of the street scenes, placing you in the chaos and hustle-bustle.

The framing I think also works for the scenes I’ve shared from the Jemaa el-Fnaa. Jemaa is known for its lively atmosphere, with street performers, snake charmers, food stalls, musicians, and various other entertainers. Wondering around this UNESCO World Heritage Site was like stepping back into a time before mobile phones, where people entertained each other with stories and songs rather than TikTok videos.

The scenes of the performers and night food markets hopefully convey some of the vibrancy and atmosphere of the Jemaa el-Fnaa in the evening. Although, I have to confess to being slightly frustrated by my own incompetence in that I’d managed to set a slow shutter speed on quite a lot of the frames I took that evening which meant that there was some inevitable camera blur.

Having said that, I decided to keep a few as a first foray into intentional camera movement! The below is one of these and I actually quite like the sense of atmosphere and sensory overload it conveys.

Remember I said at the start of this post that Marrakech had reminded me of my own limitations?

Marrakech is visceral. It can be overwhelming. The sights, the sounds, the smells. The claustrophobia of the souks. The constant invitations to come into this shop or that restaurant. And then there is the haggling. Suffice to say we found ourselves swept along inside a shop selling canvas paintings. We walked away much lighter in cash than we intended and with a canvas that we then had to work out how to get home.

On leaving that shop I felt distinctly uneasy, almost queasy. Haggling for goods is alien to us in the West, and the confrontation it requires particularly alien to my own sensibilities. The unease I felt was a direct result of this confrontation (albeit a friendly one) and feeling very much like I was an interloper in a culture I would never understand.

And it was this realisation that made me recognise my own limitations. Would the twenty-five-year-old me have felt so uneasy? I certainly don’t remember feeling so uneasy backpacking around the world when I was that age. But maybe it is just an inevitability of growing older. At fifty-two my sense of interest and wonder in the world and desire to go and explore it is undiminished. But my souk experience taught me that I’m not quite as adaptable as I used to be and that if I want to continue to see new places I need to do so with an acceptance of what situations I am comfortable with and what situations are too uncomfortable for me. Wandering ancient streets with a camera is fine, haggling for goods not so fine!

But Marrakech is too inspiring and too enchanting to leave you feeling apprehensive for too long. A visit to the Maison de la Photographie provided the perfect tonic. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone visiting the city. The portraits and other photographs on show are simply breathtaking and give a unique glimpse into cultures and traditions that I fear are now lost. The Maison also has a rooftop cafe which provided a perfect place to rise above the Medina and look out across the rooftops to the Atlas Mountains, a view that felt like the perfect spot to sign off on a truly memorable trip.

Marrakech is a feast for the senses and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been. It provided a perfect backdrop for our anniversary celebration, memories created together that will hopefully last at least another twenty years.

This post previously appeared on my substack.