Martian landscapes in Algeria are not entirely fiction. A famous American photographer set out to show the world places on earth that are reminiscent of the desert expanses of the Moon or the planet Mars.
Andrew Studer has made a mixture of reality and fiction by traveling to several regions of the globe, including Algeria, Iran, Canada, the United States, Iceland, and Antarctica. And it is in the south of Algeria that he took the most beautiful shots.
In his travels through the Sahara in Algeria and other places in the world, he was accompanied by friends whom he photographs in cosmonaut suits. Editing point therefore on the images he puts online and which arouse wonder. The project is titled “Space to Royal”.
Suder pushed the work to perfection. To reinforce the illusion of photos taken outside the Earth, he took care to avoid very well-known places, with easily recognizable “iconic” sites.
He chose sites that offer the double advantage of being reminiscent of Martian landscapes without being well known to the general public. And some places in the Algerian Sahara fall into this category.
“Tourism in Algeria is almost non-existent, and many around the world are unaware of the beauty of this country,” Studer told CNN Arabic.
Algeria: untapped tourism potential
The proof that the destination Algeria is very little valued, the American photographer affirms that before making the trip, he searched on the internet but he found very little information on the Algerian sites.
“As soon as I discovered the natural landscapes along the border between Algeria and Libya, I saw that the series will not be complete without them,” he adds.
The idea of going to Algeria germinated and after some hesitation, the project materialized. Andrew Studer is accompanied by his Dutch friend. On the spot, they face bureaucratic hassles (their equipment was seized on their arrival, but it will be quickly returned), and climatic hazards, in particular the strong heat of southern Algeria.
But there are many beautiful things in the adventure: the hospitality of the Tuaregs and above all the landscapes discovered and photographed. The images are breathtaking with vast expanses of sand and rock formations as far as the eye can see.
In all the images, a “cosmonaut” in a red suit seems to be exploring a new planet. The landscapes resemble those regularly sent by space probes from the red planet.
Andrew Studer’s goal is to discover and introduce people to places that deserve to be great tourist destinations. The Algerian Sahara is one of them.
About space and astronomy, the rock frescoes of Tassili, in the extreme south of the country, include drawings strangely reminiscent of extraterrestrial objects. It may only be a whimsical interpretation of the shapes, but these drawings feed the imagination of prehistoric specialists and space enthusiasts.
Even if this is not its purpose, Studer’s work will not fail to delight followers of the conspiracy theory which maintains that the images of the first man on the Moon were in fact taken in Nevada desert.
