The ancient theater in Sabratha, Libya
Most of the found objects I post are things that I have come upon in my travels but have not created myself, but recently I was reading about the downward spiral of violence in Libya following the revolt against Gaddafi a couple years ago and went looking for the slides I took on my trip to Libya in 2004. I went on assignment for Travel + Leisure within weeks of the lifting of the international embargo against the country. It was a nightmare trying to get permission to go — you can read about that here — but it was an amazing experience and the article that resulted (you can read it here; I also shot the photographs for that piece) is one of my favorites. I once posted a vial of rose-colored sand I collected in the Acacus in southwestern Libya, near the border with Niger, in what has become a remote and improbable Saharan traffic route for captured weapons feeding the conflicts in Mali and elsewhere. But the images above are a set of old 6×6 slides I took of the ancient Roman amphitheater in Sabratha, along the Mediterranean coast. Given the anarchy of post-revolutionary Libya you never know how many of these heritage sites will be damaged or destroyed, as has happened to devastating effect in Aleppo.
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Bio
Sean Rocha is a writer and photographer based in New York. He has lived in Hong Kong, Cairo and Paris and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Le Monde d'Hermès, Condé Nast Traveler, and read more...