At the peak of the gesture

Two women, seated on the ground, slowly turn a traditional grinding wheel. Between their hands, repeated circular gestures, inherited from generations. The hard, dense fruit of the argan tree gradually releases its liquid gold.

This photograph, taken in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains and selected by 1X.com, documents ancestral know-how passed down by women. There's no folklore here. Just the daily grind of patient, precise work , rooted in Moroccan rural tradition.

An invisible, but essential gesture

The artisanal production of argan oil is based entirely on the gesture: breaking the shells, sorting the kernels, roasting them, then grinding them manually.

This gesture, invisible in commercial circuits, is here placed at the center of the image. The stone millstones , the textiles , the woven baskets , the stained hands tell as much as the concentrated faces.

This is not a reconstruction. It is a real scene, in a village in the High Atlas, where women, often grouped into cooperatives, produce a precious oil while keeping alive knowledge that is often threatened with extinction.

A feminine and local economy

Argan grows only in a very limited geographical area, between Essaouira and Taroudant. Its manual processing represents an essential source of income for many rural Moroccan women . At the same time, it embodies a form of gentle resistance to the growing industrialization of the sector.

This photograph is part of a larger documentary project: Valoriser l'Invisible , which highlights gestures, professions, territories and heritage that are undervalued or forgotten.