A sacred moment at a dried-up oasis: M’Hammed Kilito’s best photograph

‘A powerful reminder of what’s at stake’ … Mustapha looks down a well, in a picture from the series Before It’s Gone.
Photograph: M'hammed Kilito

I travelled to Merzouga in east Morocco three years ago, hoping to photograph some wall drawings and writings I had seen there earlier – markings that showed the distance from the village to Timbuktu, in Mali, by camel. But when I arrived, the markings had vanished. Faced with this absence, I found myself seeking a new story, something unplanned.

Mustapha was my guide that day. At first, he took me along the typical tourist trails, which didn’t speak to my photographic interests. Then he suggested we explore the sand dunes. Initially, I wasn’t particularly interested in these either, but then we came across this old well. I set up my camera, a 1972 Hasselblad 500, and my tripod. As I started to photograph the well, Mustapha stepped forward, instinctively leaning in to look inside. I hadn’t imagined him in the picture but he didn’t pay attention to me. That spontaneous gesture – part ritual, part desperation – transformed the scene completely. It felt sacred, as though he were praying for the return of something essential: water.