Oh, To Swim

“I love to surf but I can’t swim…oh, to swim!”

Oh, To Swim is a project that merges documentary and staged imagery to examine the lives of three young Moroccan and Amazigh women, Yassmine, Nassima, and Fatima, who live and work in the increasingly globalized surf towns of the Agadir Area. This project encounters their voices and perspectives in spaces that have long been shaped by tourism, surf culture, and international curiosity. As the most visited surf region in North Africa, the Agadir area of Morocco, most notably the small villages of Tamraght, Taghazout, and Imsouane, draw over a million tourists annually, introducing rapid development while complicating traditional norms and customs. Women’s rights in Morocco, while slowly moving forward, leave women with far less social and financial opportunity than their male counterparts. Tourism offers both opportunity and disruption, especially for local women navigating cultural expectations, religion, and modern identity in spaces increasingly designed for outsiders.

The women of Oh, To Swim are not subjects, but collaborators, whose lived experiences center the visual narrative. Through photographic exploration shaped by interviews and thematic research methodology, their stories unfold through documentation, portraiture, and symbolic staged imagery that reflect negotiations of freedom, belonging, and resistance.

Emerging from a place of critical reflection, the project asks: How do those of us who travel occupy these spaces, and how do our gazes shape what we see?