M’hammed Kilito: Among You
Tilila (2019) from the project Among You
Meryam Tilila has medication induced skin hyperpigmentation. She suffered from harassment in the streets. When you meet her, you quickly realize that she is a bright, determined and very confident young woman. The feedback she has had on her photos since last year on Instagram has made her popular and realize that her skin spots are a “perfect imperfection” and, in a way, her own signature. As a result, many Moroccan and foreign fashion designers and photographers work with her today because of her
This project is a reflection on the choice of a personal identity for Moroccan youth based on aselection of portraits of young people who take their destinies into their own hands.
These individuals have the courage to choose their own realities, often pushing the limits of society further. Whether through their creative activities, their appearance, or their sexuality,they convey the image of a young Morocco—alert, changing, claiming the right to be different and celebrating diversity.
These young people, whose minds embody the resistance of a palm tree—a tree adapted to the harshest Moroccan climatic conditions—defy the conservative and traditional norms ofMoroccan society on a daily basis. They cultivate their private oasis despite the obstacles they encounter in a country that they feel is not progressing at the same pace as they are, and they are inspiring others along the way.
Salma (2019) from the project Among You
Born in a working-class neighbourhood and raised by a traditional family, Salma has always struggled to be herself. She is a Goth and loves the strange, the enigmatic and the unusual. She presents an ideal of beauty uncommon in Morocco and she particularly appreciates what is considered frightening, worrying or ugly under the standards of society.
Salma (2019) from the project Among You
Salima’s parents think that weightlifting will deform her body and that she will no longer be able to marry the man they wanted for her. She feels that she no longer corresponds to the stereotypical idea and criteria of feminine beauty as desired by men, yet it does not bother her more than that, because it is the body she has always dreamed of. If she questions the man’s view on women, she also questions women’s view on themselves.
Anas (2019) from the project Among You
Anas says he has problems with his family at home. They do not call him by his first name but by saying “the tattooed one”. This qualification, which is pejoratively meant, says a lot about the stigmatization of tattooed people in the Moroccan collective imagination, because they are considered criminals, prisoners and dangerous people. He is a Peter-Pan, in the midst of adults, lost in issues beyond his control.
Shady (2019) from the project Among You
Shady defines himself as “a fairy in the land of the Ogre, a maniac of nongendered fashion, a mixture of pastel, gore and alternative punch bowl”. In his very poetic way of being, he feels misunderstood in the eyes of a society that considers him a Satanist simply by having a metal ring in his nose.