Discover Why Blue is Beautiful with Algerian Artist Ramzy Bansaadi

Ramzy Bensaadi is an Algerian photographer based in Oran in Northen Algeria who has been photographing his dynamic and diverse home country since 2012. 

Ramzy worked in the airline industy before returning home in 2012. He noticed that there were very few authentic photo representations of Algeria available for anyone to see. Since that realisation, he has made it his mission to capture the place he calls home in photos. 

One of Ramzy's long term projects is a photograhic essay documenting and celebrating festivals and spiritual celebrations in the rural outskirts of Western Algeria.

Ramzy visited a number of different villages on the day that the people of each place commemorate the founder or spiritual leader of the community.

Ramzy met and photographed many different people  from various surrounding places who had come together  pray, sing, dance and enjoy a horse show.

During his time photographing the celebrations, Ramzy noticed how often the color blue was caught by his camera. ''The chipping paint on the side of an open truck, the panels of an old car, the fabrics of clothing, all in blue tones that represent Algeria." 

Ramzy was also struck by the use of the term blue to describe beautiful Algerian people  and as he states, ''a brown-skinned person is described as being “blue” and there are many raï songs [local Algerian pop music] that evoke this skin color to express beauty and charm''

Ramzy was also influenced by the iconic raï singer Chaba Zohra who says in one of her the songs, “women in Oran are blue because of the sea.'' 

Wheather it appears in the color of a truck, the reigns of a horse, the sky and the oceans or even in contemporary raï music - as Ramzy shows, vibrant shades of blue abound in Algeria