“Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre� (Africa always brings something new) Pliny the Elder
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Sponsored by Hewlett-Packard A portion of the sales of this book are dedicated to Kickstart International This is an Eye to I © book published by www.greatcirclebooks.net Great Circle Books Email: contact@greatcirclebooks.net All images © Bryony Shearmur Photography, All rights reserved. An Ode to Mali © 2009 Great Circle Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-9798631-5-8 Great Circle Books media representative: MediaTek Consulting 2001 Wilshire Blvd., #400 Santa Monica, CA 90402 Contact: rweiner@mediatekla.com A&I: Baret Lepejian & Vic Lepejian Great Circle Books Editor: Rex Weiner Design consultant: Todd Smailes Book Design: Joe Fulginiti A&I Events Coordinator: Micki Hassemer Print consultant: David Carstensen
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An Ode to Mali Photographs by Bryony
Shearmur
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INTRODUCTION You could say that I found myself in Mali as an accidental tourist. A chain of events that began at my local brasserie - a long storytook me half way across the world to West Africa and into the Sahara Desert. Armed with a yellow fever shot and four cameras I flew to Mali as a volunteer for The Festival Au Desert, the annual gathering of the Touareg Nomads at Essakene, in the Sahara. I had no expectations, only vague ideas and I knew next to nothing about my destination. If I had done a little research and known that I would spend the next two weeks surviving on fish heads and goat’s meat, sleeping on the ice cold desert sand with no sleeping bag (my oversight) I might have opted instead for a beach and sunscreen. My entry into Mali was late at night. Arriving in darkness we drove to the outskirts of Bamako (Mali’s capitol). All I saw were the firepits that line the streets, built by the people to sleep beside. It looked picturesque and romantic. The following morning, in the daylight, the real pandemonium that is Bamako was exposed. Not as picturesque and certainly not romantic. I walked the streets in search of something familiar. There was nothing. I was thousands of miles away from family and friends with no phone, no internet and I wondered if I had made a mistake. I am not what you would call fainthearted but on that first day I realized that I was going to have to shed some skin and surrender to the complete unknown. I consider this Mali’s gift to me. My journey into the desert was three days of cramped driving, food in buckets, with the occasional pit stop to change cars (which can take all day in Africa). The people are friendly and they want to meet you. I gave sweets to the children and anything else that I could find in my luggage. Their families laughed and were pleased if you stopped to talk, despite any language barriers. There is something about the air in Mali that makes you feel content; it is a warm breeze that lulls. The terrain changes constantly, bringing into your field of vision different trees and flowers every few miles, camels, sheep and goats wander freely and you feel blessed to be a part of it for a few moments. The festival itself was a revelation, grand on a scale all of its own. It was not as well attended as other years. There were rumours of a terrorist attack which only made for a stronger sense of comraderie. As a press volunteer I soon got to know everyone. Suddenly the playing field is leveled and you know that every person has shared the same journey just to be there for those three days.The festival is planned around the first full moon of each year so I found myself lying on the sand, watching stars shoot across the sky, the full moon lighting the entire festival, listening to some of the purest music I have ever heard. Soulful, funky, desert blues. It brings a smile to your face and a groove to your body. We danced all night. Wandering the dunes by day you run into groups of musicians sitting and playing, groups of rainbow clad Toureg chanting, everyone is welcome to join in and of course every where I looked was a photograph waiting to be taken. There is something between the lines that interests me, a chance moment that goes beyond words and that connects us all. That is the moment that I try to capture every time I take a picture. In this book I offer just a few of those moments. There are a thousand pictures that I did not take that I wish I had: Driving out of the desert and into the sunrise with the moon behind me; shooting stars over the Sahara; sitting with new friends around an open fire, sharing stories of how we all came to be in the same place. These are precious memories. The hardship that undoubtedly exists in Mali is not the first thing you notice. The people I met seemed not resigned or angry, but courageous and grateful, the kind of happiness that comes from being present in every moment, of knowing real hardship and finding ways to overcome it, of living with Mother Nature as your closest ally and fiercest enemy and adapting to her constantly. Of really knowing the value of family and friends. I felt that they could teach us all a great deal. A once thriving country, Mali has suffered many setbacks. But still the people I met expressed a wisdom that is irresistibly inspiring. I felt privileged to be there among them. With this collection of photographs I hope to show the incredible beauty of Mali, the elegance and pride of its people. It was a life changing experience and this is my homage to Mali. Bryony Shearmur Los Angeles June 18, 2009 4
FOREWORD
by Henry Rollins
Mali, the West African country bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, is a study in extremes. If you were to journey from Bamako, the country’s capitol city in the south, and head north into the endless seas of the Sahara, you would be hard pressed to believe you were in the same country. One of the most profound things about Mali is that it seems to be all at once a country of two peoples, desert-dwelling and non-desert dwelling, and not a country at all but more of a proving ground for the indomitable strength and beauty of the human spirit. From top to bottom, the country, while incredibly beautiful, is also one of the harshest stretches inhabited by humans. It is a country plagued by poverty, political turbulence and the consequences of climate change. It is impossible to think of what Mali has without thinking of what it has lost. The legendary Malian city of Timbuktu, once a cultural Mecca, educational center and destination for bold explorers, is now an impoverished and struggling place, a shell of its past magnificence. Mali has some of the most charismatic people I have ever seen, the nomadic Touareg. They are not exclusive to Mali, populating several of the countries surrounding Mali. For centuries, the Touareg have lived in one of the most extreme environments the Earth has to offer, the Sahara Desert. The Sahara is as unforgiving a place as one can imagine. By noon the heat is lethal. Twelve hours later, the temperature has dropped to a teeth-chattering low. The Touareg are tough, beautiful and resourceful. Their music is some of the best in the world. All the things that Mali is; beautiful beyond description, strong as life itself, heartbreakingly sad, saddled with a future that is anything but bright, and all those things that render one unable to speak, have been captured so perfectly by the lens of photographer Bryony Shearmur. Almost anyone can hold a camera and take a photo. To make photographs speak to the one looking at them, the photographer must feel the images, must connect emotionally on some level with what is being photographed. More often than not, the photograph is as much about the one taking it as what the image is comprised of. It is obvious that Bryony loves Mali and connected with its people. Her photos are the perfect example of what photographs should do: tell the story that words will always fail to do. If you have not been to Mali, Bryony takes you to its very pulse. Africa holds the sorrow and hope of the entire world. To go is to fall in love and have your heart break all at once, over and over. This is what Bryony’s photographs so exquisitely capture.
Henry Rollins, musician and spoken-word artist, has recently traveled to Mali. His radio show on KCRW frequently features the music of Malian groups such as Tinariwen.
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An Ode to Mali Photographs by
Bryony Shearmur Index
3 7 8 9 11 12 13 15 16 17 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 33 35 37 39 Back Cover
Running Boy All the Young Dudes Desert Trees Silhouette 1 House #1 Rainbow Nomads Yellow Shesh Praying Boy Nomad #1 Nomad #2 Nomad #3 Mopti Girl #1 Mopti Boy #1 Yellow Chairs Dune Tents Dune Clouds Timbuktu 5.30 AM Mopti Scene #1 Duenza Landscape Mopti Boy #2 Mopti Children Ave Maria Praying Man Festival #1 River Niger Mopti Girl #2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Very special thanks goes out to the following people. Each and every one has been of invaluable help and support to me on my photographic journey, Thank you. Ed, Alli, Immi, Anthony, Valerie and Robin Shearmur, Michel Karman, Baret Lepejian, Don Weinstein, All at A and I, Dave Carstensen, Steve Molton, Tiko Ohanian, Jason Costanza, Matt Allen, Rex Weiner, Joe Fulginiti, Micki Hassemer, Henry Rollins, Tagine, Chip Brown, Semeli Economou, Phillippe Angers, Greg Cook, Saadiq, Peter Buotte, Paul Chandler, Zora, Citizen LA, Rachel Kropa, Kickstart.
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Bryony Shearmur is a London-born, LA-based fine art photographer, whose passion for picture making began at age 11 when she saved up to buy her first camera, a Nikon FM2, that she uses to this day. She was raised and educated outside London, leaving school to attend St Martins School of Art to study photography. She worked subsequently as a costume designer and photographic stylist while also pursuing a musical career, touring Europe and Scandinavia, playing music and taking pictures. She returned with a collection of images and began to concentrate on a photographic career. Re-locating to Los Angeles in 2001, Bryony immediately began documenting her new surroundings. Her first one-woman show featured fine art nature and landscape work. Her second show focused on portraiture, marking a new direction inspired by the work of photographers like Yousef Karsh and George Hurrell. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Uncut, LA Weekly, London Times Magazine, Q and other publications. Years as a performing artist provided an easy transition into the LA music scene. Bryony has shot live performances for artists like, Radiohead, Kate Nash, Dido, Nine Inch Nails, Radio 4, Saadiq Raphael, Jonelle Monae and a host of visiting and up-and-coming bands. Still shooting film and using old-fashioned lighting techniques, she was awarded an honorary mention in the 2007 International photographic awards for her portraiture. Bryony is looking forward to returning to Mali in 2010 to continue her photographic mission there and support for Kickstart.org.
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KickStart’s mission is to help millions of people out of poverty. We promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Mali and other countries. We develop and promote technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises. For more about Kickstart International: www.kickstart.org
Hewlett Packard is a sponsor of the Eye to I Photographic Exhibition Series 2007. With two HP Indigo Digital 5000 printers installed at A&I, HP joins A&I and Great Circle Books to provide high-end digital imaging and quality printing for the Eye to I series of photography books by great photographers whose work highlights urgent social issues. A portion of book sales are donated to non-profit humanitarian organizations. Hewlett Packard is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and digital imaging and printing. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States, HP also provides software and services. For more about Hewlett Packard: www.hp.com
A&I Photographic & Digital is a world-class photographic processing and printing lab with a 30-year history of innovation and quality. The client base at A&I includes renowned celebrity, fashion, stock, editorial, advertising, nature, portrait, wedding and fine art photographers, as well as students and photographic artists whose work defies categorization. For more about A&I: www.aandi.com
Charting photographic journeys by established and aspiring photographers since 1997, Great Circle Books is an editorial, publishing and marketing resource for fine art photographers, in creative alliance with humanitarian organizations around the world. For more about Great Circle Books: www.greatcirclebooks.net
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Citizen LA is a unique monthly arts & lifestyle magazine covering art, fashion, music, film, theater and all related events that support and sustain cultural diversity in Los Angeles. Accessible and inclusive, direct and compassionate, this publication offers its readers a window into the lives of engaging personalities whose actions and commitments are re-inventing our great city. Citizen LA’s uncompromising coverage, talented contributors, exceptional photography and clear message have been instrumental in carving a unique niche in the creative landscape. Citizen LA delivers a distinctive and resolute message by and for the people. For more about Citizen LA.com: www.www.citizenla.com
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