Just another
June 17, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
I was taking photos of a singer for a great magazine out of London, and this guy on the left thought he was the star of the night..Just another Friday night in Dakar.. I’ll post more of the photos after the publication comes out.. 
Friday Delight
June 12, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Just one more reason why globalization ain’t so bad…
ps: joyeux anniversaire mon amour… Je me tiendrai prêt toi pour toujours
Africa Fun
June 8, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
There’s this little teensy weensy amusement park on a street called Bourgibas in Dakar.
Most of the rides are for those under 12-years-old, but to the side there is a small bumper car area for the big kids. For 1000 CFA (roughly 2 bucks), you get a handful of red plastic ‘coins’ that you can put into the car. Each red ‘coin’ lasts about a two-minute turn on the cars. I don’t know if there is any better way to spend a Sunday evening than getting into a too-small car with your boyfriend and taking turns spinning into circles and bumping into strangers and laughing about it. Here’s a peek through the gates at a woman and her child who were waiting at the side of the tracks for an older sibling to finish bumping into strangers. That blur is a bumper car.
ADVENTURES IN FREELANCING (Encore)
June 5, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
There are numerous reasons people become journalists. One of my reasons was that everyday is different. Now that I’m a freelancer, that rule applies about tenfold.
Since coming back to Dakar I’ve had three assignments (people called me!), and two of them have been commercial. The most recent was for a woman who actually lives in the States, but she’s selling wigs from Dakar in the States. My job was to photograph the wigs and edit the photos and get them to her. I know have 167 photos of wigs that I am uploading at this moment. I spent two days shooting girls with braided wigs this week and last. Just one more example of how my days differ in extreme degrees.
As usual, it was fun, and a little challenging at times. We ended up setting up a makeshift studio in the mother’s of one of the girls’ who works for the boss in the States’ bedroom. Got that?
The most interesting thing? We were out in the suburbs of Dakar, where there are fewer Toubabs. One of the little girls who saw me in the house started BAWLING, like, crying hysterically when she saw me.
“It’s your skin,” said the woman who has helping me with the shoot as she laughed. “She stays in the house, and she’s never seen a white person.”
Let me say, it is a very humbling experience to have a child start crying everytime you come near her.
Here’s an improvised fan in the wig shot…
Video of the week.
June 2, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
This makes me happy in that “chills up your spine — wow the world is cool — maybe I can make beautiful stuff like this” kinda-way. About 37 seconds in is my favorite I think
Will.i.am “She’s a Star” music video from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.