It Sprung From Within by Karim Benkirane
It sprung from within Karim Benkirane
The ship has landed and the anchors are sinking.
Home.
It is palpable here, I can feel my body responding.
Dakhla.
You heal my soul with your warm winds and cleanse my mind of delusions.
You speak a language that echoes in my chest. I can feel the changes in my heart and in my mind.
The opening up. The widening.
I feel like I am not myself anymore, but just a small grain of sand dancing joyfully among others, your children, my brothers and sisters.
Water and sand. Dreams and desires.
I feel nothing but love, real love everywhere in this endless emptiness and forever stretching horizon.
Walking for miles with no reason other than to witness the void, to feel this oneness with my surroundings, to feel that I can finally settle back into this home of mine, the home inside myself.
What if I just danced and swirled in the winds for the rest of my life ?
What if I surrendered to the elements and accepted being nothing ?
Then the weight on my shoulders will disappear, and maybe I will too.
There is a way out, I can see it from here.
I just perhaps, don’t want to leave anymore.
This will be my home, until the wind blows again.
Shot in Dakhla, Morocco, this series is our most precious one because it carries a lot of emotions we feel when we are there.
It was very natural to shoot and we haven’t though about it before – we just dreamed of it on the moment as there was not enough wind to kite surf. Me and Sami were at ease on the top of this dune with only the sand, the sea and the fresh salty winds caressing our bodies. Perhaps a holy moment where the universe was speaking to us, showing us where our bliss might lay.
Model: Sami (@dirty_s_)
Karim Benkirane is a film photographer from Fez, Morocco, based in Paris.
I (re)discovered analog photography one year ago, when I bought my Canon AE-1. I’ve never had any specific project until now, I am just trying to capture what I feel when I see something beautiful.
I shoot film because I love the feeling images hold – all the imperfections and the grain making the pictures raw and real.