GIULIO APRIN
Photographer, Explorer and storyteller.
Remote.
I don’t know what greater force, what energy, compels me toward the unknown. Perhaps it’s the call of a silence that speaks louder than voices, or the whispers of a landscape rich in stories of millennia. Maybe it’s the relentless desire to uncover something deeper within myself, among the infinite dunes and beneath the boundless sky, a connection to something timeless, a journey that transcends the physical and touches the soul. It is as though the desert holds an answer, hidden in its winds, waiting to be discovered by those brave enough to listen.
Yak
Nomad
▪ Tajikistan 2025 ARCHIVE
People of the Sahara is a black-and-white photographic journey built over five years of exploration, from 2020 to 2025, across the vast and shifting landscapes of the world’s largest desert.
This curated collection of 100 photographs intimately portrays the lives, presence, and enduring spirit of the nomadic and Berber communities of Mauritania, Libya, and Algeria.
Everything is relative. The meaning of youth or that of childhood. In the desert, age is just a number. One is born an adult, with responsibilities. One is soon a man or woman who actively contribute to the community or to the family.
This doesn’t mean I haven’t seen children play in the desert, but it’s not normality. We were crossing the palm grove of Tichit on foot. It extends for about two kms towards the NW. I saw some kids between the palm trees playing and joking with each other. One of them was carrying a bundle of dry palm leaves over his head while the others laughed and chased each other.
It was almost noon; the sun was high and beating down on our heads. The scene reminded me that no matter how hard life can be, no matter where you are, it doesn’t take much to smile.
I couldn’t help but capture the simplicity, but power of this moment framed in this surreal context. A young palm grove crossed by young boys, The Palm Boys. To make the scene even more dramatic, the strong wind moved the crown of the palm trees while everything below them moved slower.
People of the Sahara is a black-and-white photographic journey built over five years of exploration, from 2020 to 2025, across the vast and shifting landscapes of the world’s largest desert.
This curated collection of 100 photographs intimately portrays the lives, presence, and enduring spirit of the nomadic and Berber communities of Mauritania, Libya, and Algeria.
People
of the
Sahara
COLLECTION
“Better to walk without knowing where
than to sit doing nothing”