Fabian Schreyer, German based street photographer about his short trip to Chefchaouen, Morocco.
Fabian, please introduce yourself briefly.
I’m 35 years old and working as a marketing manager, pr-agent and photographer in my hometown Augsburg/Germany. Since about ten years I have a special focus on street photography and I’m the co-founder of the international street photography collective The Street Collective.
Your series was shot in Chefchaouen, Morocco. How did this series came about and how did you prepare for this trip?
The series resulted from a rather spontaneous trip to Morocco this November. I was on parental leave, got a few days family timeout and booked a plane ticket to Fès in Morocco. I had been to the south of Morocco already twice, so I decided to head to the north this time. A place I always wanted to visit is Chefchaouen, a laid-back mountain village 4.5 bus hours north of Fès where the exterior walls of almost all buildings are painted in different shades of blue. Unfortunately I had only 1.5 days to stay and photograph, so I’m hoping to return one day.
How did people react when being photographed at this particular place and in Morocco in general?
Many Moroccans are not too pleased with the approach of a street photographer, who rarely asks before taking pictures. Especially women, the elderly or very religious people easily get offended, so it’s a balancing act to seize your opportunities without being a pain in the ass. Chefchaouen wasn’t much different concerning this matter to other places in Morocco that I had visited before.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated to go out and shoot?
I rarely need any extra motivation. Being a first-time father, I‘m quite busy recently. So if I see an opportunity, I can’t wait to hit the streets. Especially if I have the chance to combine it with a trip, I’m always extremely excited to spend all day outside photographing.
How do you balance family life, work and street photograhpy?
That’s a difficult task indeed and I’m still trying to figure out how to satisfy all needs. My job situation is currently quite time consuming and either photography or the family and friends get a bit neglected. I hope to find a good balance, but it might take some time and I don’t have a masterplan yet.
Please tell us a bit about your own personal projects and your current or future activities with your friends at thestreetcollective.
My plan for the next months is to find as much time to shoot as possible without neglecting my family life. I’ll continue to work on a few long term projects – for example on the Oktoberfest.
I might do an exhibition of my work from Morocco in Morocco and on the long run I want to publish a book on my personal work, something I’m still quite afraid of.
Due to everyone’s full schedule our collective comes off a bit badly at the moment. We’re planning to realize a few new collective edits/projects though in the future and try to realize another collective holiday/meeting somewhere in 2019.
Where can we find more of your work?
Website: www.shootingcandid.com
Collective: www.thestreetcollective.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/fabian_schreyer_street
Facebook: www.facebook.com/shootingcandid
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/shootingcandid