Mark Rammers is a Dutch photographer based in Amsterdam, that says to be at home on the road, where he finds beauty in ordinary spaces and everyday situations. Doing go, he aims to meet the constantly changing needs and demands of a globalizing society examining how we shape the environment and document the natural and man-made landscapes surrounding us in an era of continuous change.
About ‘Saint Louis – Senegal’ – words by Mark Rammers:
Last summer, I impulsively booked a one-way ticket to Dakar, thinking about making my way north through the Sahara. I traveled the 2500 kilometers to Marrakech by public transport, a trip filled with friendly locals, local dishes, long drives in the back of ancient cars and numerous breathtaking landscapes bathing in the golden Saharan light.
Senegal captivated me, Saint Louis, the once capital of French West-Africa, in particular, with its beautiful people, buzzing street scenes and a melting pot of architecture. Across the waters of the Senegal River delta, dust from the Sahara slowly rolls in, leaving a thin layer throughout the village as it reaches the Atlantic Ocean, where the dry Harmattan winds carry it further across the globe. Walking through Saint Louis gives me a glimpse of how the desert, the Africans and the French came together in a place and decided on the pace of life in this part of the world.
You can only imagine the grandeur of the colonial era, as nowadays many buildings have fallen prey to deterioration, housing large Senegalese families that don’t have the means to restore the tattered walls, crumbling roofs and chipped layers of paint.
On my last day, I meet a boy washing his horse and carriage in the river. When he greets me in Wolof, Senegal’s original mother-tongue, and looks at me flustered when I reply in French, I know we’ll never grasp each other’s words. He signals if I want a ride into town. I decide not to, a choice I regret still, as he would have been able to take me deeper into life on this intriguing island.
