Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25128
contributors Simon Russell 's photography career began ten years ago when he sold his first photograph for 10 cents to a postcard company in Casablanca. Twenty magic carpet trips later, he found himself camp- ing out under the stars and surfing Morocco's highest sand dunes (Surfing the Sahara, page 60). While shooting photographs in Morocco, Simon re lies heavily on the concept of inshallah (if Allah wills it). It helps keep him smiling even when snowboards go MIA, customs officials want lots of baksheesh or a hearty camel stew gets the better of him. When he's not wh itewater rafti ng in I daho or hang- ing out with the Iban of Borneo, he's at home in Manhattan, fighting with his four-year-old son over who gets to ride the tricycle down the biggest hill in Central Park. Simon's photos can also be seen in Escape to Morocco (Fodors Travel Guides) on bookshelves now. Writer Steven Kotler has been mangled, mistreated, misled and missing in 17 different countries. This year he went to Morocco for a little more abuse. But instead of sandstorms and grumpy camels (Surfing the Sahara, page 60), Steven found himself charmed by the endless sand and passing Bedouin nomads. Steven is the author of the national best-selling novel The Angle Quickest for Flight and his writing has appeared in publications including GQ, Details, Men's Journal and blue. In her 20 years traveling the world, Patricia Perkins has bused through Kurdish ambush country and floated down Alaskan rivers into villages where Eskimos hold community dances in total silence. She's also trav- eled through every teeny country in Europe, including San Marino and Liechtenstein. The first time Patricia read anything by Paul Bowles, she suspected that he knew the secret of long-term traveling: the self we take out there is never the self we bring back. After she'd read every- thing he'd ever written and everything anybody else had written about him, Patricia decided she had to meet him. Paul Bowles was gracious and funny and full of traveling stories (Paul Bowles, page 66). She dis- covered that he indeed knew the secret. But she also found out that he'd gone too far to come back. Photojournalist Jackie Garrow spent two years adventuring around Canada in a big green bus photographing wild and endangered spaces with seven landscape painters. After seeing every nook and cranny of her beloved Canada, Jackie decided it was time to travel overseas. She spent last year in Morocco, leading bike expeditions and exploring the country with her camera (Magical Morocco, page 40). "Morocco is one of the most photogenic places on earth," Jackie says. "But it is also one of the most difficult to photograph. You must spend time-respecting, interacting, understanding, fading into the woodwork and watching the magic unfold. It would take a thousand lifetimes to even come close to capturing Morocco in words or photos. And this is what will keep me going back." Jackie was recently one of four travel-writing finali sts at the Canadian National Magazine Awards.