on NYT: Dreamlike Photos Reveal the Spiritual and the Comic at Algerian Festivals by Fethi Sahraoui

News Spotlight

on NYT: Dreamlike Photos Reveal the Spiritual and the Comic at Algerian Festivals

fethi sahraoui

Jun 6, 2019

By Sara Aridi

Sept. 21, 2018

Festivals are visual gold mines, no matter the cause for celebration. The more extravagant, the better.

A seasonal festival in Algeria, locally known as waada, offers plenty of dazzling visuals. Yet in “The Cult of Souls,” the photographer Fethi Sahraoui forgoes busy wide shots and opts for the intimate and absurd. His dreamlike images almost convey a hushed scene, as if they were taken backstage where not much is happening.

Mr. Sahraoui, 25, is a self-taught documentary photographer from northwestern Algeria whose work has been shown at the Arab World Institute in France and at the Museum of Modern Art in Algiers. One of his earlier projects, “Escaping the Heatwave,” is currently on view at Photoville in Brooklyn.

Dreamlike Photos Reveal the Spiritual and the Comic at Algerian Festivals
Fethi Sahraoui shot seasonal festivals that bring an annual burst of celebration and amusement to sleepy Algerian villages.

964

Fethi Sahraoui

Also by Fethi Sahraoui —

on The Washington Post: A look inside the mass protests in Algeria

on NYT: Finding Fraternity and Politics in Algerian Soccer