Building by Fernand Pouillon, Seraidi

A respite from the noise, dirt, and restless frustration of Algerian reality below to the clear light, air, and silence of the mountain village of Seraidi. For my friend, Atef, the contrast is startling between the divine perfection of nature above, untouched by man or politics, and the man-made hells of colony and post-colony, below. Up here, a moment’s glimpse of heaven before one remembers that Seraidi was an epicentre of violent unrest in the 1990s

A Window to the Outside, Annaba

Photographed at an internet cafe, where talk revolved around the illicit departure on the same evening of two local fishing boats bound for Sardinia. Wooden, worm-eaten, and built to hold three or four comfortably, they each carried a dozen aspiring emigrants on the approximately 20-hour journey to Sardinia, across the treacherously calm waters of the Mediterranean. The fare for passage: about £300.

Votez Zidane

Votez, Annaba

Zone de Sécurité, Algiers-Annaba

Les Femmes d’Alger, Avenue Victor Hugo

Virtually the only way to photograph on the streets of Algiers is with the iPhone.

Algerian Swallow, Shoot It! Postcard, Sent by Joseph McGonagle and Received by John Perivolaris, 18 December 2009