Morocco is famous for its leather, and for centuries Fez has produced the finest leather and leather goods in Morocco. This is a set of pictures taken at 3 tanneries, all within the walls of the Medina. They tan and die hides using traditional methods. The tanning process sees the hide soaking for days in a mixture of pigeon shit and cow piss; the dyeing uses vegetable and animal products such as saffron and types of beetle.
Anyone who is familiar with the smell of fresh hides knows that it is rather unpleasant - I would not like to spend too much time in one of these places, let along work there. At least they are workers' cooperatives, so the profits are shared among the workers themselves. http://www.web-options.com/Tanneries/ I have not post-processed these yet, and a good deal of editing still needs to be done, but I thought I'd put them out there with all their faults so that I can hear what people have to say. I find your comments very useful - they tend to make me go back and look again at pictures I didn't think much of - or thought too much of. I bought a nice pair of slippers from the shop attached to one of these places. They're made of the most beautiful soft lambskin uppers with camelskin soles, and are very high quality. It's a strange pleasure to know how and where they came from. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
