Minarets, mosques and madrasas in Northern Africa

Rod Sainty travelled throughout Morocco and Tunisia in 2016 and 2018 to photograph the iconic architecture that developed from the movement of Islam into North Africa. Rod used the classic tools of architectural photography – a 4x5 view camera and sheet film - to photograph each large subject at close range. His intention was to replicate, to the fullest extent possible, the sense of presence he felt while standing right there with each subject, up close, “feeling, as it were, its breath upon me”. Rod's use of a 4x5 view camera was driven by a desire to represent each structure free of the usual distortions of tilting and convergence that afflict images of architecture made with normal cameras at close range, and to do so without recourse to digital stitching or manipulation. Furthermore, sheet film provides a robust and low-tech means of image capture during extended travel in a remote country far from technical support. Travelling with such equipment presented challenges. The lasting rewards, however, are undistorted, quietly elegant and richly detailed portraits of some of history’s most amazing architecture.