Tanning and Dyeing Leather, Morocco

In Morocco’s royal cities of Fez and Marrakech, leather is still tanned in open-air pits inside the old medinas. From the rooftops, the tanneries appear as a restless mosaic of circles: white vats that strip the hides, and pools of red, yellow and brown where colour slowly seeps into the skins. Down below, men work waist-deep in the mixture, moving lamb, goat, camel and cow hides with bare hands and feet. The process is as old as the cities themselves. Hides are first cleaned in solutions of water, lime and other strong agents, then kneaded in vats rich in natural ammonia from pigeon droppings, which soften the leather and prepare it to absorb colour. Afterwards, the skins are dyed with pigments drawn from plants, spices and minerals — poppy and paprika for reds, saffron and pomegranate for yellows, henna for warm browns, indigo for deep blues — before being carried to the terraces to dry under the sun. This series follows that journey across tanneries in Fez and Marrakech: from the geometry of the pits to the intimacy of the workshops where fires heat the dye, from the rooftops of the medina to the faces and bodies of the people who keep this demanding craft alive. In a time of industrial tanning and synthetic chemicals, these images record a labour-intensive, precarious tradition that still shapes the smell, colour and economy of Moroccan daily life.