‘Mectoub’, takes a closer look at young men from the Mediterranean world, particularly the ‘urban generation’. Beginning in the spring 2011, these young men have been caught up in the ongoing series of violent current events and have been striving for more individual freedoms; at times putting their lives at risk in order to experience their deepest aspirations freely. It was my aim to meet and document these young men outside of the tumult and despair of the front lines; challenging the way (mostly western) mainstream media views them.

Carrying the exoticness of outsider, seemed to make it easier for the men to express themselves without inhibitions. I document my subjects as they really are, avoiding clichés and challenging the stereotypes so prevalent in photographs of the region. By capturing these young men in a setting where they are able to express themselves freely allows them to engage in what could basically be considered a rebellious act. It takes enormous courage for these men to expose themselves to a stranger’s camera, when living in a country where individual freedoms exist almost entirely behind closed doors. I began Mectoub in 2012 in Morocco, continued on to Egypt in 2013 and in Palestine and Algeria in 2014. The results are an intimate collection of images that succeed in opening up limited viewpoints of how Arab men are portrayed. The resulting images in Mectoub explore identity, desire, memory and the borders of these complex societies, where the question of individual freedom, gender and sexuality are central to the demands which are at the origin of the massive political, economic and social transformations that these countries are currently going through.



