Adrienne always held off on visiting Morocco for one reason or another.
It was on her list for over a decade until, in the spring of 2017, she met two friends in the airport in Marrakech and they took off on a 10-day trip through the north African country. Choosing to travel there with Lisa and Daniel turned out to be the best decision she could have made.
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Though Adrienne gravitated naturally to taking portraits, she had to approach things a bit differently in Morocco, a place where people often aren’t comfortable with being photographed by tourists.
Instead, she started shooting everything else, and found that the beauty wasn’t just in the dereliction.
The beauty was in the details:
Trying new food at the restaurants Lisa so expertly selected.
An overnight train from Marrakech to Tangier, the three of them stuffed into a cramped compartment with a Spanish man, eating cookies, laughing, and squishing themselves onto bunk beds that were far too small.
Turning around to find Lisa happily selling oranges with one of the juice vendors in Djemma El Fna, the main square in Marrakech.
Drilling their young Berber guide with questions about his life while trekking through the Atlas Mountains.
The final evening in Fes, knowing they’d never forget the way the light felt as they watched the sunset from a park on the outskirts of town.
All the cats.
The candlelit nights in their riads, when the trio would talk and edit photos until sleep overtook them.
With Adrienne, Daniel, and Lisa, it was never about “going to get the shot” while they were in Morocco. Whatever they found along the way was good enough.
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Morocco was nothing like Adrienne thought it would be, yet exactly like she’d imagined.
It was perfect.
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Daniel Pierruzzini, Adrienne Pitts, and Lisa Weatherbee traveled to Morocco in the spring of 2017, and documented their trip on Instagram using #AParisianAKiwiAndANewYorkerInMorocco. You can read Adrienne’s blog posts about the trip on her blog, and see more of her work on her website.
This story was written based on three separate interviews conducted with Daniel, Adrienne, and Lisa. Check out the other two stories in this series — The Parisian & The New Yorker.
