September 2020

I took this photograph in September 2008. The year before, I traveled to Morocco to investigate the migration route from there to the Canary Islands. I became friends with Mohamed, a university-educated 24-year-old who had been trying to leave Morocco due to a lack of opportunities. We waited in different safe houses for three months, only to have our money stolen by a smuggler once we'd reached the port. We tried again six months later with a different smuggler but our boat sunk in the first couple of waves. One year after I'd first met Mohamed, our boat arrived on the small island of La Graciosa, and Mohamed had finally made it to Europe. The journey took 36 hours in a purpose-built makeshift boat. The blue paint was still wet when we set sail. Within an hour of arriving, we were arrested and everyone was flown back to a Spanish enclave in Morocco. Mohamed spent a month in prison, and was released in Spain without documents. I had to fight in court for 6 months to get my confiscated photographs back. One of them, the moment our boat capsizes on Spanish shores, is September's 10"x8" print.