Moroccan photographer Zouhir Elmessaoudi's latest photographic series "Broken Wings" presents an intimate exploration of human existence through street portraits captured primarily in the historic city of Tetouan. The collection transforms chance encounters with strangers into powerful visual narratives that reveal often-overlooked stories of solitude, despair, tenderness, and resilience.
The title "Broken Wings" emerged from Elmessaoudi's encounters with individuals whose lives seemed suspended between fragility and survival. Like wings once meant to soar but fractured by time and circumstances, these subjects continue to move, persist, and resist despite their challenges. The photographer emphasizes that his intention is not to glorify suffering or exploit vulnerability, but rather to dignify presence and transform fleeting encounters into lasting reflections.
Each photograph captures anonymous individuals from diverse social backgrounds, including street vendors, workers, children, and women who carry both the weight of tradition and the burden of survival. Elmessaoudi describes his subjects as appearing like open books, their faces inscribed with emotions too deep to be expressed through words. Before pressing the shutter, he always experiences a moment of recognition—a glance, a silence, a brief dialogue without language that creates a fragile connection shaping the portrait as much as light and shadow.
Most of the works were created in Tetouan, though Elmessaoudi does not live there. The city, with its narrow alleyways and timeless rhythm, has become the stage for his encounters. Being an outsider allows him to see the inhabitants with fresh eyes, but he also feels a responsibility to honor them and ensure they are not reduced to simple anonymous figures lost in the crowd.
As a photographer, Elmessaoudi positions himself not as a distant observer but as someone who recognizes fragments of himself in these strangers—their fragility, their desires, their dignity. When he raises the camera, he does so with humility, conscious of borrowing a fragment of their existence. For him, photography is not about freezing reality but revealing its invisible layers and giving voice to silence.
Through "Broken Wings," Elmessaoudi hopes to invite viewers into this silent dialogue. To dive into these faces is to confront not only the lives of others but also our own. These portraits reflect our shared vulnerability, our unexpressed desires, and our fragile humanity. In them, pain coexists with beauty, despair with hope, and solitude with love.
Ultimately, "Broken Wings" serves as a tribute—a visual poem dedicated to strangers whose lives deserve to be seen, recognized, and remembered. The series demonstrates how street photography can transcend mere documentation to become a profound meditation on the human condition and our collective resilience in the face of adversity.
