Niger
The whitest ceramics in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa Shiny chalices cupped to gather the rarest water of the desert The miracle is almost there, lost somewhere amongst mirages Meanwhile vendors relax in the shade waiting for the the rain or the customer Whichever will come first.. Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
Tasked with the daunting mission to haul the desert away An ageing green truck waits for cooler times to start its work Idle men on top watch the shovels intently, but they refuse to move on their own Victory is earned in blood sweat and tears regardless of the help of divine winds While men […]
Travelling at the speed of light along the dusty roads Entering Niamey through the magical gates of dusk When dust mixes with the mist of a past torrid day The sky still shows patches of light blue and fiery clouds Neon lights slowly wake their flickering heads To stand up and fight the incoming darkness […]
Walls come in different shapes and colors They share the same purpose of segregation The outside and the inside are arbitrary definitions Doors are the initiation passage between the kingdoms The sign above the door both an indication and an expectation The night porter is set for his shift with seats and TV set The […]
Like the pit stop at Ben-Hur’s chariot race The organized chaos of an African market Where confusion of an artful palette of colors Set an impressionist scene where lights and dust play Languid bodies and reclining souls, a couple flirting in the distance In a haze of a burning spotlight reaching its zenith in the […]
Clocks slowly crawl back hundreds of years ago But the power lines remain snagged in the sky A moped stands like a vestige of a future in the making All the rest is almost biblical, quiet, pastel and peaceful The vendors at their stalls and the ladies in their delicate shawls The photographer sells meat, […]
This is not the infamous Patpong Bangkok night market No seedy strip joints or similar activities, this is Niamey Just street vendors gathering like moths around the rare light spots There is a very minimal equipment in public lighting And when the big shops will close it will become a pitch dark city Lit by […]
In the heat of the budding night the market hits closing time Buyers and vendors mill around hurrying back home The sky has long lost its gold and lapis colors and sinks in the darkest hues Like an ink blot obscuring the sky and smothering the world into silence The ballet of cars and mopeds […]
Crossing the bridge over the river and the rice paddies Racing against the twilight’s extinction man beats donkey And the first will one day be the last in the orders of disorder Night will come to him with swarms of giant bats like flying demons The incubus will come under the guise of night, a […]
A Desert Princess, the daughter of some powerful Pharaoh Riding her blue steel steed straight at the incoming villains Stopping in disbelief at the very edge of disaster Wondering how can her right of way be wrong Beautiful in her purple and gold robe, crowned by a shiny red helmet Photo Hugh Ardoin Niamey Dusk […]