Diaspo #389 : Amine Raji's quest to capture the Morocco of childhood summers

Ya Biladi

17-05-2025

Mounir Raji's story is one of pursuit, passion, and hard work, values he inherited from his late father, a man from Casablanca who left Morocco in the late 1960s in search of a better future. At just 18, he boarded a boat, then a train, and arrived in Amsterdam speaking only a single word of Dutch: arbeid (work). He went straight to the police station to apply for a work permit, as many immigrants did at the time.
Told that there wasn't much work in Amsterdam, he was directed to Zaandam, a city just 20 minutes away. There, he walked from factory to factory, repeating the only Dutch word he knew. He got a job in a factory and gradually worked his way up to become a social worker.
Settled in Zaandam with his wife, Mounir was born. As a child, he wasn't particularly interested in photography, his real passion was football. «I used to play at a local club», he said. «My parents always encouraged me to do my best at school». As the son of first-generation Moroccan immigrants, his upbringing felt normal to him.
Summers were spent in Morocco, an annual tradition. «I always looked forward to the summer. We spent six weeks in Morocco every year. That's where I learned to speak Darija».
These yearly trips shaped his connection to Morocco. They started in Casablanca, then Marrakech, his mother's hometown, and later his father's village in the Atlas Mountains.
From football to photography
After finishing school, football still dominated Mounir's life. He decided to study sports marketing, not out of love for the field, but because his parents encouraged him to pursue a business-related degree. «They believed that studying something practical was important to make a living», he explained.
But photography came into his life almost by accident. «During a holiday with friends, I brought a small camera, but it was a friend's professional one that truly got me interested». After returning home, he saved up during an internship and bought his first camera. «I regretted it immediately because of how expensive it was», he laughed. But that feeling disappeared quickly, as he had fallen in love with photography.
Like his father, Mounir had a plan: to turn his passion into a career. He completed his degree, as his parents had advised, and committed fully to photography.
Committing to photography
While writing his thesis, he offered to intern, unpaid, for a photographer just to learn. The experience showed him how much he still needed to know. He then enrolled in a part-time photography course that met once a week, which helped him sharpen his technical skills. «It was a good decision because that mix of studying and working really worked for me», said Mounir who progressed faster than his classmates, thanks to the hands-on experience he gained on professional sets.
Eventually, the photographer he interned with offered him freelance work. It came just after Mounir had interviewed for a suit-and-tie office job. «The contrast was striking», he said, as he did not hesitate to opt for photography.
For five years, Mounir assisted that same photographer and various others. «It was great because I saw how each one had their own way of working», he said. «It was a formative time where I earned money, gained experience, and built my portfolio».
A turning point came in 2013 when an agency wanted to work with him. «That moment was the first time I truly felt like a photographer», he said.
Mounir began working with the agency, landing his first campaign with Nike in Amsterdam. «From there, I continued with Nike and started doing football-related projects, which I really enjoyed». He has since worked with brands like Adidas, Atelier Munro, Daily Paper, Elle, G-Star, Mastoor, VanMoof, Vogue, and more recently, Asics and New Balance.
Capturing the Dreamland
Besides his commercial work, in 2017, Mounir embarked on a deeply personal project, one tied to his heritage. While browsing photography books on Morocco, he realized something was missing. «Most of those books were made by photographers who didn't really know the country. I thought: let me show the Morocco I know».
He packed his camera and headed to Morocco without a specific plan, just a desire to capture the Morocco he experienced. This idea translated later into a series called Dreamland, which turned into a book in 2023.
Dreamland is Mounir's visual homage to the Morocco of his childhood summers, a place he never lived in but deeply idealized. «That's why it's called Dreamland», he explained, it's nostalgic. Romanticized. «It's my imagined version of Morocco».
While shooting Dreamland in 2019, Mounir's father passed away unexpectedly. Grieving his loss cast a shadow over his creative process. To reconnect with his art, he began photographing the motorbikes of Marrakech from his rooftop every afternoon. This side project became Yallah.
«My agent told me I should share something from Morocco, but I wasn't ready to release Dreamland yet. Then I looked at the Yallah series, originally intended for the book, and realized it could stand on its own». He exhibited the series and released a small publication in 2021. «That was the first time I showed something publicly».
The response was overwhelmingly positive, and two years later, Dreamland was published. «Looking back, I never would have planned it that way, but the pandemic forced me to rethink everything—and it worked. Yallah was like a preview. Dreamland is my baby», he said proudly.
Mounir's latest project, Bladi, returns to his father's hometown on the Draa River, Tafergalt, to document the effects of climate change in a region that depends on water for survival. «It started with my family, and it's a long-term project I'll be working on for years. For me, it's home. But for my cousin, it's not just symbolic, it's his land. He needs it to make a living».