Born in 1993, in the Southern town of Hassi R’Mel, Fethi Sahraoui is an Algerian photographer, working on the social landscape. After studying foreign languages at the university of his town Mascara, he graduated in 2018 after preparing his final studies project about the contribution of Black American photographers during The Civil Rights Movement to become a full-time photographer. Fethi’s work was shown in different institutions like The Arab World Institute and published on numerous platforms like the New York Times among others. He is a member of the 220Collective, a Magnum Foundation fellow, and a participant in the last edition of The Joop Swart Masterclass.

The Wind that Shakes Dreams explores the lives and the surroundings of the people residing in Kahwet El Rih, a village in the southwest of Algiers, Algeria. An unusually high number of the inhabitants suffer from severe eyesight problems, causing varying levels of blindness for many. Some say blindness is a genetically transmissible disease, while others believe it is caused by the tiny thorns of the barbary figs surrounding the village flying in the air.

“Since I started this project, I have been interrogating myself about how popular culture depicts the existence of people with distorted vision, and inevitably, I found myself asking similar questions, do they dream while sleeping? Do they have a sixth sense? Do their other senses become sharper?” says the photographer.