The late French-Moroccan artist and photographer Leila Alaoui was celebrated for her portraits of people whose lives were impacted gravely by conflict and unrest across the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle Eastern regions. Alaoui regularly collaborated with NGOs, and used her social documentary photography to bring attention and awareness to urgent humanitarian issues. A graduate of City University, New York, by 2009, Alaoui had exhibited her work internationally including the Institut du Monde Arabe and at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Konsthall of Malmoe in Sweden, the national palace of the citadel of Cascais in Portugal, and Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, Canada. Her photographic missions for NGOs included the Danish Refugee Council, Search for Common Ground and HCR. In January 2016, while working on an Amnesty International commission about women’s rights in Burkina Faso, Leila Alaoui was seriously injured in the terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou. Tragically, she did not recover, and died three days later on 18 January 2016 of a heart attack, aged 33. The Fondation Leila Alaoui was later established in her memory, working as an estate for her work, and a way to continue to inspire and support artists advocating for human rights and human dignity.

No Pasara was Alaoui’s first major body of work, and constitutes a significant part of her legacy as an artist. Commissioned by the EU, No Pasara (meaning Entry Denied), followed a group of young Moroccans awaiting the journey to Europe from the port cities of Nador and Tangier. As a French-Moroccan, this story was particularly close to Alaoui’s heart and the portraits with their subtle touches of beauty and the sublime carve out a space for hope and optimism in a grim reality for these young people. In this picture, the composition, with the figure of the young man in the corner of the frame against an illusory painted backdrop of a mountainous landscape, fills the image with desire, and a dream. It exemplifies the captivating, stirring and empathetic kind of storytelling Alaoui quickly became known for in her short but inspiring career.

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