There is a specific moment, often during childhood, when your parents’ homeland turns into a vivid dream. For photographer Mounir Raji, that moment coincided with summers spent in Morocco: weeks filled with sun, colors, familiar faces, and absolute freedom. It was a break that smelled of return, but also of discovery. And it is precisely from this duality that Dreamland was born, his photographic project and artist book.

Born in Zaandam, Mounir Raji is a photographer already known for collaborations with brands like adidas, Daily Paper, and Vogue. Through his lens, he tells the story of a Morocco far from clichés and tourist routes. A Morocco that is intimate, made of everyday gestures and shared silences, of landscapes that seem to exist only in the memory and nostalgia of those who grew up elsewhere.

Dreamland is an ode to migration, but also an attempt at reconciliation. For those who grew up in Europe with roots elsewhere, returning to the places of origin means confronting an idealized, almost mythical image. Yet it is precisely in that contrast between expectation and reality that Mounir finds his aesthetic: warm, soft, authentic. His photographs do not shout, but embrace. They do not describe, but evoke. They show us what it means to finally feel at home, even if only for a few weeks a year.

This project is made up of faces that resemble his own, of places that hold personal memories but become universal. It is a journey that speaks of trust, freedom, and hope. Of that rare and precious feeling of being truly oneself.