Sarah B. Harnafi is a 24 year old is a Moroccan designer and photographer, who is curious about her surrounding, always looking for inspiration she takes to the Moroccan streets. She tells us more about her dreams of the Arab world, where the Moroccans are the heroes of their lives and dreams.
She makes them travel wherever they want. It is a journey all the Moroccans want to do one day.
Here is 5 of the 35 Artists we featured in our Visual Guide. You can still purchase it on our online store.
Let us get right into it…
Tell us a little about your self?
I am a dreamer who sees poetry in our daily life.
I am a lover too. I can easily fall in love with a moment, a decor, a smile, a taste, a pattern, a sound, a sens of style.
Who am I ? An explorer in constant quest of beauty in life.
What inspires you and your photography work?
Morocco is an important source of inspiration for me, that’s the reason why I chose to settle here. I take my inspiration mainly from the streets of Morocco. I transform my photographs into illustrations, designs, art, and words. I love everything about this country. I like seing people in the street having a good time, I like the architecture, the diversity from one city to another. In Morocco we have a lot of influences from different cultures and that’s what I find the most fascinating.
What are the themes you often explore in your work and why?
I explore a variety of themes in my work but the ones that come up the most are freedom, love, and dreams. I believe everyone on this earth is in search of something. Happiness. But how do we achieve it? Is it love? Is it freedom? Dreaming?
My work is guided by this constant questioning. How do we continue to be happy or how and where do we find happiness? The stories I tell through my illustrations are journeys we take in quest for new experiences. Experiences of sharing but also individual experiences that allow one to themselves better. They are also journeys that we make for ourselves, in search of ourselves.
Tell me more about your project, La Terre s’envole….
La Terre S’envole is a story about and for Moroccans. It’s a story about our dreams, our daily life and our sense of sharing.
I think we can see in my work a specific vision of the world. It is for me, a perpetual journey, led by a quest for a better world. It’s the illustration of a long journey in which we take all the strength in love, hope, or perhaps the freedom we want to reach.
My illustrations show a strong desire to reach a freedom not every Moroccan can dream of.
My images expresses some issues that I see all around me in Morocco: immigration, love, travel, and women. As a positive person, I am trying to show everything in a different and brighter way.
Which image is your favourite and why?
My favorite piece of work is « Le Voyage ». It shows a man, traveling on a moroccan teapot. He is holding a flower in his hand- the Hibiscus flower. This man is creating his own mode of transportation to reach something he needs in his life : love. The teapot is his transportation, and the tea he is making all the way to his destination allows him to travel. It’s an image about hope, love, and motivation. I think that it symbolises the power we all hold in our hearts. It shows us that love can make everything possible. The passion for something or someone can take us anywhere we want to go.
Tell me about the process in making these images?
I first look for an inspiring face. A face that expresses something for me. Then I extract the face from the original picture and I draw it on my computer. I create a whole environment that can help me tell my story.
I choose the colors, the textures and I work until I find the right colors, as I dreamt of. I can forget my work for a while and work on it weeks later. I fix everything and change the elements again and again in the aim to make my dream a reality.
What is your dream for the future of Morocco?
Morocco is a beautiful country with beautiful people who have a great sense of hospitality. However it pains me to see that still in some remote and rural areas the literacy rate is so low. It is not uncommon to see young children working instead of being at school. I think education is primordial and is something that opens a world of opportunities. So at the moment, my dream for Morocco, but above all for the people of Morocco, is the right to go to school. The right to have an education; to study. I think it’s something that is essential, at least for children and young people. We need to make it easy for the people that are far from schools. We need to help people get education easily and change people’s way of thinking about school: it is not a privilege it is a necessity.
Connect us with a few of your favourite Arab Artists at the moment.
5:35: Sarah B Harnafi
Here is 5 of the 35 Artists we featured in our Visual Guide. You can still purchase it on our online store.
Reconnecting Arts 