Looking for a Place with No Name 

Curator: We're looking at "Looking for a Place with No Name" by Achraf Baznani, a photograph that places a solitary figure before a faded world map. Editor: Ah, yes! My first thought: it feels wistful, a bit dreamy. That sepia tone adds to this impression. He looks like he's about to step into a storybook world... or a well-worn atlas. Curator: Baznani's work often blends surrealism and portraiture. The world map here operates, I think, as both backdrop and a kind of projection of the subject’s internal state. What is particularly striking is that we cannot see his face: his quest might represent one of us. Editor: Absolutely! It’s all about the journey, that yearning we have. The vintage suitcase grounds it, though; it’s almost cliché in its symbolism, but works. Where's he going in his slippers? To the end of the garden? Or perhaps that imaginary place he's dreaming of. Curator: One can also see it through a social lens: global migration. The old map can become an embodiment of our colonial past: how certain cultures, countries, places are marked or erased. Even the 'no name' invites us to consider ideas of territory and belonging. Editor: I hadn’t considered that, but it deepens the image significantly. Suddenly it isn't just about escapism but a far more charged notion. Curator: It asks where do we all truly 'belong'? Editor: Yes, and on a lighter note: if there are no places left, why take such a small suitcase? I suspect his is a spiritual quest! I admire how Baznani triggers these levels of reading. He’s got me questioning my own map of the world, literal and emotional! Curator: Precisely, a great photographer makes us interrogate our own assumptions and the histories that frame them. Editor: So much is concentrated here in what appears such a deceptively simple image, and isn't that so often the key?