Born in the north of Morocco, he moved with his family (which included eight siblings) to Belgium when he was very young – the intersection of his African and European identities providing a fertile ground on which to draw.
It’s the joy in this tension that caught the eye of Chiara Bardelli Nonino, photo editor at Vogue Italia. “I came across Lamrabat’s work on Instagram and was immediately struck by how beautifully he merged Moroccan heritage and Western imagery. In particular, fashion visual culture – sometimes referencing it, sometimes teasing it,” she says. “His images, with their vibrant colours, playfulness and powerful, extremely personal aesthetics, are the most tangible proof that when cultures interact and cross-pollinate, something unique happens.”
This visual mongrelism began with photographs featuring figures shrouded in colourful cloth, he explains. “I was with my girlfriend, and we were road-tripping in Morocco. Everything was so beautiful. I wanted to do something so abstract that it doesn’t have anything to do with a face or a body.” Playing with fabric in this way nods, too, towards his own heritage as a Moroccan Muslim. “I think for me, as a… I don’t know what to call it, so let’s just keep saying ‘immigrant’ – it’s important to talk about my heritage. Whatever happens in these times, I just want to show that we’re creative, we have such a rich culture. It’s beautiful.”
The “something unique” to which Bardelli Nonino refers might be due in part to Lamrabat’s process; there’s a special kind of alchemy at work in his images – and that comes from not planning every last detail. “I always try and place myself in a universe where nothing has been created yet,” he explains of his approach.
By eliding photography’s rich history, and the avalanche of images with which we are confronted daily, he prompts an emotional response in his viewer. It’s what makes his pictures so memorable. “I don’t plan out what I’m going to do,” he says. “It’s a basic starting idea, there’s a lot of trial and error. Creative things are like that. Life is like that.”