WEST AFRICA • 2024

The Sahel Dispatch

Six weeks across Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — documenting communities living at the edge of the expanding desert.

Year

2024

Region

West Africa

Duration

6 Weeks

Format

35 mm film

Published In

National Geographic

Le Monde

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The Sahel is not a crisis. It is a way of life — one that has always demanded adaptation, endurance, and an intimate relationship with uncertainty. What is changing is the pace.


I spent six weeks travelling by road and on foot through Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, staying in villages where the nearest well had moved three kilometres in a decade.


Shot entirely on Kodak Portra 400 and Ilford HP5. No digital backup.

PHOTO ESSAY

A woman carries water from the new well, 4km from the village centre. 

Dori, Burkina Faso

Market Day. The drought has not stopped the market.

Gao, Mali

A school of chance — where learning refuses to wait for better conditions.

Agadez, Niger