senegalese

Natural Light Portraits in Senegal

Some natural light portraits I took of a friend in Dakar, Senegal. The portraits were all taken with a Canon 5D2 and a 50mm 1.4 lens in and around Dakar. The model, Fatima is a photographer and model from Dakar, she is available for photos shoots and collaborations. Click through the slideshow for some of the natural light portraits of Fatima taken in Dakar:

All of the portraits of Fatima were taken in Dakar, either on the Northern coast of the peninsula or on the island of Ngor. The colourful braids seemed to be the fashion trend in West Africa at the time of my visit with Fatima’s pink ones only available from Ghana.

I have written several other photography blogs about my trip to Senegal including:

More of my travel photography from Senegal can be found on my website, my Instagram, and my Flickr account.  Fatima, the Senegalese model in the portrait images can be found via her instagram at @fatou.gueye.bello. If you are interested in purchasing any prints, using an image online or would like further information please send me an email at: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com. 

Tabaski Festival in Senegal

The Tabaski Festival occurs every year in Senegal and The Gambia as well as much of West Africa.  It is the same Islamic holiday that Muslims in other countries celebrate and call Eid al-Adha.  For the festival which this year is held on August 22nd, every family has to buy and then slaughter a sheep or ram.  Last year I was in Dakar, the capital of Senegal for the month of August, the following photos were taken during this period in the lead up to the Tabaski Festival. (Click through the slideshow below to view all of the photos).  

What is the Tabaski Festival in Senegal?

The Tabaski Festival is the biggest public holiday in Senegal.  Senegalese people return to their families from different parts of Senegal and even from overseas to celebrate the event.  If you visit Senegal during August, you will see sheep everywhere.  Penned on roads and pavements, tied to posts and cars.  On the beaches you will see children washing the sheep in the ocean and playing with them on the sand.  You will see them tied on the top of buses, riding with humans inside the buses and just about everywhere else that you look.  There is even a national beauty contest each year in Senegal to determine the countries most beautiful sheep.  In Senegal, the government runs a program codenamed Operation Tabaski to provide animals for those families that can not afford one.  Incidentally, I know in the photos the animals sometimes appear to be goats but I was reassured that they were in fact sheep.  After some online research I learnt that one of the ways to differentiate between the two is by their tails: sheep's tails hang down, goats tails are smaller and point up.

On the day of the Tabski festival following an important morning mosque service families return home to slaughter the animal and prepare it for the family feast.  In total up to four million animals are sacrificed every year in Senegal for Tabaski.  The entire animal is apparently used with nothing wasted, not even the intestines or horns.  The day following the festival however I did see a large number of sheep carcasses on the beaches of Dakar.

Tabaski Festival is based on Islamic beliefs and could also be referred to as the feast of sacrifice. According to the holy Koran Prophet Ibrahim was commanded by God to take his son, Ishmael up on to a mountain and slaughter him as a sacrifice. Although Christians and Jews argue that Isaac was the son to be sacrificed and not Ishmael, all sides agree that Abraham was obedient to God and was ready to kill his son when a ram was provided as replacement instead.

More of my travel photography from Senegal can be found on my website, Instagram, Facebook Page and my Flickr account.  If you would like me to be involved with an Instagram takeover please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Down by the Sea, Senegal

I recently spent a couple of months in Senegal, a country in West Africa.  I spent the majority of that time in the capital Dakar, mainly at the beach town of Yoff.  The town is built along the broad beach at Yoff Bay which faces the Atlantic Ocean, directly north of the city centre of Dakar.  In West Africa the beach is much more than a place to relax and soak up the sun.  Click through the slideshow below for some of my travel photos taken at Yoff Beach in Dakar:

The beach at Yoff is used as a means of transportation with Horse & Cart transporting people and produce along the beach.  In the afternoons the beach becomes a huge gym with hundreds of Sengalese coming to exercise in groups or alone.  Several football games take place along the stretch of sand and men practice the Sengalese form of wrestling by the shore.  Yoff is also a place to pray with one of the biggest Mosques in Dakar situated overlooking the beach.  

The most important function of the beach however is access to the ocean for it's fish.  At the far end of the beach lies the fishing centre where many colourful fishing boats line the sand.  On the shore women wash and prepare the fish, old fridges lie around storing the catch of the day and locals visit to make a purchase.  Everyone here seems to be involved in some way with fishing, be it transporting, cleaning, cooking, catching or selling the daily catch.  A very lively and colourful place it was great for photography.  The beach also has regular and consistent surf, another good reason to visit and spend a few days there...

More of my travel photography from Senegal can be found on my website, my Instagram, and my Flickr account.  If you are interested in purchasing any prints, using an image online or would like further information please send me an email at: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.