Medina - Old City, Tripoli, Libya

I imagine that in a past life, I lived in a place like this, because it looks so oddly familiar. People from developing countries often joke that all of the third world looks the same, and it sort of does - Delhi, Havana, Cairo, Tripoli. That same dusty, shabby appeal, the same peeling paint, crumbling sidewalks, rusted doorknobs and hinges. For me, there's a sort of odd comfort in looking at pictures of places like this. The familiarity is primal. I live in Los Angeles, but in some deeper part of me, this looks perfectly like home.