A quiet exhibition in Rabat is giving voice to those the world forgets to see.
Fez– The Hassan II Foundation for Moroccans Living Abroad just opened a new exhibition in Rabat, one that doesn’t shout but quietly stirs.
Moroccan photographer Mustapha El Basri is back in his hometown, not in person, but through the lens of his camera, with a deeply personal and poetic photo series titled “Je viens d’un regard qui traverse” (roughly: “I come from a gaze that crosses over”).
Hosted at Espace Rivages from June 19 to July 19, 2025, the show is more than just a series of images, it’s a sensitive journey across continents, captured in fleeting street scenes and portraits.
El Basri’s photographs spotlight people on the margins: the unnoticed, the overlooked, the ones who exist outside the frame of the usual narratives.
His work doesn’t aim to shout truth, it simply invites you to see.
A street photographer with a strong humanist core, El Basri is known for freezing the kind of moments that disappear as fast as they arrive.
He calls them “decisive instants”, those split seconds where everything aligns: the light, the gaze, the mood.
But what makes his work stand out is not just technical precision; it’s emotional memory. Each image, whether in color or stark black-and-white, holds a quiet story.
It’s about exile, memory, and the complicated feeling of returning somewhere you never fully left.
This exhibition marks an artistic homecoming for the photographer, who left Morocco years ago to study sociology in France, and later moved to California where he trained in photography.
His journey across countries shaped the way he sees people and places, and it shaped his sense of duty too.
Through his camera, El Basri tries to restore dignity to those who are often left out of the frame.
Though he couldn’t attend the opening in Rabat due to unforeseen circumstances, his presence was felt through every portrait on the wall.
The exhibition space carried a powerful calm, no spectacle, no gimmicks, just truth told through faces, moments, and unspoken stories.
According to MAP, Fatiha Amellouk, head of the arts and culture division at the Hassan II Foundation, described the exhibition as part of the Foundation’s mission to support Moroccan artists living abroad by giving them room to share their creative work with audiences back home.
This initiative not only reconnects artists with their roots but also gives the local public a rare chance to see the world through a different lens.
Mustapha El Basri made headlines last year as the first Arab photographer to be featured in Australia’s Top 101: “International Portrait Photographers Awards Book”.
And with this exhibition in Rabat, he continues to weave a visual memoir of longing, displacement, and quiet resilience.
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