January 2009
The exhibition "Photographic testimonies, Large Formats », was designed by the Maison de la Photographie de Marrakech.
In the last century, photographers in Morocco sought to fix the time, traces of time, men and women, the visible and the invisible, the other. This is the fascination of the Large Formats on display here.
The 26 large formats presented in the hammam built by Minister Mehdi Mnebhi, were photographed between 1880 and 1950, sometimes by anonymous photographers, including here the prints from glass plates, photographs taken by a young couple from Lyon, in 1926, or by famous photographers: de Meyer, member of the American Secession group, refined portrait painter, Pierre Verger, eternal traveler, by photographers based in Morocco: John Manuel, Belin…
Images must circulate and all the more, of the country that welcomes us, the photographs of the Memory of Morocco. That these photographs be accessible: this is our wish. To the visitor "for the pleasure of the eyes", and why not, to those who want to bring back testimonies of a time gone by from their stay in Marrakech, but infinitely close to us.