I am excited to introduce the newest addition to my portraits collection, a man I met in Tangier who— it turns out— is no stranger to being photographed. He told me before we sat down that he had been professionally photographed many times before and was even featured once in the New York Times.

Huh. People often tell me odd things like this when they notice my camera.

I think he could tell I didn’t quite believe him, because he pulled out his phone forthwith and began not only showing me the photographs, but we even exchanged email addresses there on the spot so that he could send the pictures to me.

If you’ve never been to the Middle East then this might not make sense to you, but it is not unusual for shopkeepers—when trying to make a sale— to tell you all sorts of fantastic things in the interest of endearing themselves to you, things which may or may not be true. In some instances (I’m looking at you, Egypt!) a conversation with a shopkeeper could quickly devolve into a sort of calculated, inventive, and aggressive fantasy of lies.

“My mother is from Telluride! Just like your shirt!”

“Get outta here. Really? Then what state is Telluride in?”

(We both know it’s untrue, but now he’s got me talking to him…)

But in the case of the gentleman above, it turns out that I am not the first photographer to be captivated by this man’s alluring gravitas and, no shit, he really was featured in the New York Times.

From the food to the culture to the architecture, Morocco has more than its fair share of unique and enchanting aspects, but one of the things you’d really have to see to believe is the light.

There is something about the sunlight in Morocco that is an absolute dream for photographers. The whole country seems to stay perpetually “lit.”

And by lit, I mean that even if I had a whole bevy of professional studio lights at my disposal, oftentimes I would need to change very little about any given situation in Morocco to achieve desirable light.

It is an absolute delight, Morocco’s warm, loving sunlight, and it makes impromptu portrait sessions like this one not only possible, but surprisingly easy and fun.

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I'm not gonna lie, I pretty much came to Tangier just to BUY A RUG. LOL So here's a bit more of Tangier, as I hunted for the perfect carpet: