‘Beyond the Steppe’ examines the accelerating effects of desertification in the Algerian steppe through the lives of those who depend on and protect the land. Focusing on herders in Laghouat and Djelfa, Cléa T. Rekhou explores resilience, ecological fragility and adaptation in a changing environment.

Algeria, the largest country in Africa, sits at the crossroads of the Sahara and the Mediterranean, with around 80 per cent of its landmass covered by desert. Within this setting, the steppe of the Saharan Atlas, where sheep farming remains a central activity, forms a fragile yet strategically important environmental zone spanning more than 32 million hectares.

Through documentary photography, field narratives and portraits presented as diptychs, Rekhou focuses on an often overlooked region and on the people who live on, work with and defend these lands. The project gives space to the knowledge and resilience of herders while tracing the silent transformation of a territory under ecological, agricultural and social pressure.

Desertification is already a tangible reality here, driven by drought, overgrazing, erosion and unsustainable agricultural practices, and intensified further by climate change and the increasing sedentarisation of herders. ‘Beyond the Steppe’ asks how communities adapt when an environmental crisis threatens both their way of life and a long-standing relationship between people and land.

Artist Bio

Cléa T. Rekhou is an Algerian-French visual storyteller based in Algiers. Since teaching herself photography in 2016, she has continued to reassess and redefine her practice. Her work addresses social and environmental issues from overlooked angles, as well as questions of identity that she explores through a growing understanding of her Algerian heritage.

Her recent project ‘Beyond the Steppe’ was supported by the National Geographic Society and documents the environmental challenges of desertification in the Algerian steppe while highlighting the people directly affected and their resilience. She is a member of Women Photograph, a National Geographic Explorer and a Newf fellow, and contributes to L’Obs and The Washington Post.