La Clinique Du Ballon

Marrakech, Morocco, 2025

In a narrow workspace beside the Tannieries of Marrakech (Morocco), Kamal Boukentar keeps a craft alive, heritage of his family business started in 1960.

His atelier, La Clinique du Ballon, is barely large enough to hold a workbench, a few tools, and stacks of leather. From this small room come out footballs and rugby balls, entirely handmade.

Kamal believes he is the last artisan in the Arab world who still practices this trade.

Unique pieces, stitched by hand from raw leather, one piece at a time.

Each ball is born once, made entirely from scratch through hours of precise, repetitive gestures.

While he works, Pink Floyd plays in the background, blending with the distant sounds of the tannieries.

From time to time, he pauses to prepare and drink the typical Moroccan mint tea, which he also offered to me when I visited.

These small rituals punctuate the rhythm of his day, grounding his work in both tradition and personal habit.

The craft has been passed down through generations. Kamal learned it from his father, inheriting not only the technique, but also the patience and discipline it requires.

Children from the neighborhood often stop by his boutique to ask if they can borrow a ball. Kamal lends them one, and moments later the sound of play fills the street outside: laughter, shouting, the rhythm of a ball bouncing against the Medina's walls.

At one stage of the process, Kamal coats the leather with a dark mixture that nourishes and protects the surface. The liquid slowly spreads across the stitched panels, deepening the color and revealing the natural grain of the material. The ball begins to take on its final character, the warm brown tone that will accompany it long after it leaves the workshop.

Once the leather has been treated, Kamal dries the surface over a small burner — the same one he uses to heat the water for his mint tea. Turning the ball slowly above the flame, he lets the warmth fix the color into the leather, sealing the surface before the ball is finished.

This photo reportage is a portrait of solitude, transmission, and finality. It documents a man working alone, preserving a knowledge that exists only as long as someone continues to practice it.

In Kamal’s hands, leather becomes memory, and a simple ball becomes a testament to time, craft, and devotion.

Marrakech, Morocco. 2025