mecca through a hasselblad.

Great to see these pics from Mecca. Humanises the Demonised .


What Beyhum’s photographs are, is as much do do with what they are not. News outlets commonly publish aerial photographs of pilgrims in the main mosque. Street scenes, group portraits, and photographs of infrastructure are made by journalists and pilgrims alike. Photographs from within the mosque and close to the Ka’aba during Hajj are uncommon. Medium format photographs in such proximity to the Ka’aba are scarce.



“The Hasselblad 500 wasn’t really the most discreet camera to have, but it’s not a place you go back to that often so I wanted the quality to be exceptional,” says Beyhum. “People did have small digital cameras that don’t get noticed but security is very tight. When they checked my bags they saw this big black brick and asked, ‘Whats this?’ I said, ‘Oh, nothing, its antique junk that I’m taking into town later to get fixed.’ Luckily the security guy didn’t have a clue it was a camera.”





http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/10/toufic-beyhum-mecca/