palms and satelites

Emma Sheppard

I'd only been in Algiers a week when I took this, on boxing day 2006. Because Algeria is a Muslim country, Christmas isn't really celebrated in the same style as it is in the UK, so boxing day is just like any other day.

It rains a lot in Algiers in the winter, and we were standing on top of the hill at the base of the Martyrs' Monument (Maquam E’chahid) looking over the city to on three sides, and the port to the other, watching these clouds come in on the first sunny day in weeks. As the clouds moved in, the apartment blocks went from bright white and cream to a dull, dirty grey, turning the city from a prosperous port to an unlovely sprawl of concrete.