“M'hammed Kilito is a Moroccan photographer with a stunning visual style, as well as a thirst for finding new ways of telling stories. He is very enthusiastic as well as inquisitive, with a desire to help change our industry by encouraging the work of photographers from developing countries.” - Olivier Laurent, France, foreign photo editor, The Washington Post, and 6x6 nominator.
M'hammed Kilito is an independent photographer based in Rabat, Morocco. As a documentary photographer, he addresses issues relating to cultural identity and the human condition.
His work begins with a long period of meticulous academic research and field investigations on sociopolitical concepts. Kilito holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from Ottawa University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Montreal. He has worked in different parts of the world, with a focus on Morocco.
Among You
Among You reflects on the choices of Moroccan youth around their personal identity. Through a selection of portraits, M’hammed Kilito documents young people who have taken their destiny into their own hands. These individuals have the courage to choose their own realities, often pushing the limits of society further. Whether through their creative activities, their appearance, or their sexuality, they convey the image of a young Morocco - alert, changing, claiming the right to be different, and celebrating diversity.
“These young people, whose minds embody the resistance of a palm tree – a tree adapted to the harshest Moroccan climatic conditions – defy the conservative and traditional norms of Moroccan society daily. They cultivate their private oasis despite the obstacles they encounter in a country that they feel is not progressing at the same pace as they are, and they are inspiring others along the way,” says KIlito.
Born in a working-class neighborhood and raised by a traditional family, Salma (20) has always struggled to be herself. She is a Goth and loves the strange, the enigmatic, and the unusual. She presents an idea of beauty uncommon in Morocco and particularly appreciates what is considered frightening, worrying, or ugly under the standards of society. Rabat, Morocco, March 2018.
Anas (18) says he has problems with his family at home. They do not call him by his first name but refer to him pejoratively as "the tattooed one." Tattooed people in the Moroccan collective imagination are considered criminals, prisoners and dangerous people. Salé, Morocco, March 2018.
Shady (20) defines himself as "a fairy in the land of the Ogre, a maniac of non-gendered fashion, a mixture of pastel, gore and alternative punch bowl.” In his very poetic way of being, he feels misunderstood in the eyes of a society that considers him a Satanist simply by having a metal ring in his nose. Casablanca, Morocco, April 2018.
Hajar (28) and Ines (24) are convinced that you have to talk, express yourself and have the courage to dare to say: "I am here and yes, I am different, but I live with and among you." They declare that it is their duty as queer to assume and take over a space in which to exist. According to them, change will come when the queer community takes control of its own destiny and imposes itself as an active one. Casablanca, Morocco, January 2018.
Destiny
Destiny is a project researching the relationship between work and social determinism in Morocco. Social determinism holds that all human actions are ruled by their prior states, and that individuals have no influence in their decisions. People in this system, therefore, have no free will and, if they believe they have it, they have only the appearance of it. The project uses a visual sociology approach to research whether we are actors of our own lives or under social pressure in deciding our career choices.
"I was attracted to scenography because I stammered a lot at the time. I did not pass the oral exams in elementary school, I did not read in class. However, after two years at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Animation, I realized that when I was on stage I did not stammer at all. I think because it's another story that I tell and not mine, and I liked being on stage. So I chose the performance and the stage and became a comedian." - Fatima Zohra, Rabat, Morocco, April 2016.
"My father died in 1955. It was a woman my family knew who raised me. In 1963, she didn't have much money left and I had to leave school. When she was still working, she bought me some cinema magazines. We only had one cinema and people used to wear their best clothes to go there. One day, I picked up a large quantity of cinema magazines and I went to sell them at a bookstore. He didn't give me a good price and I decided to sell them myself directly without an intermediary. That's how I got into the business." - Mohammed, Rabat, Morocco, April 2016.
Zakaria is part of the national coordination of unemployed, visually impaired and blind graduates. He alternates between dressing up as Mickey Mouse selling balloons and taking pictures with kids, and protesting with his friends to claim their right to work in the public sector. They are calling for immediate exceptional employment to “compensate” for the unfulfilled quota of 7% of positions dedicated to the disabled in the civil service, according to the decree adopted in 2016. October 2016.
"I am a 'barcassier.' I ensure the transport of people between the two banks of the Bouregreg, the crossing of the river which separates Rabat from Salé. Football requires knowing powerful people and my family did not have much money. Afterwards, I got injured and could not make a career as a football player." - Abdellah, March 2016.
