NOMADS
Six Lives, One Desert — A Portrait Series from Mauritania’s Sahara
Nomads is a six-piece photographic series capturing the essence of desert life through individual encounters with those who live it, men whose days are shaped by silence, space, and endurance in the remote Sahara of Mauritania.
A thread of blue runs through the collection, more than a color, it becomes a quiet language. Blue is the sky that stretches endlessly above the desert: open, infinite, and free. It also alludes to water, rare and precious in this unforgiving landscape, a symbol of what sustains life when everything else has been stripped away. And it appears in the flowing daraa, the traditional garments worn by most of the subjects, textiles that ripple like the dunes and root the images in Mauritania’s cultural identity.
The Desert Magician
In a remote corner of eastern Mauritania, laughter echoes across the golden hour light. Three young boys engage in a playful moment around a camel in the heart of a nomadic camp. One rides tall, channeling an almost mythical presence, while the others guide and gesture like young magician in a desert stage.
Here, in a land marked by aridity and silence, children still find ways to play. Their imagination turns dust into stories, camels into companions, and each moment into something extraordinary. It’s a quiet reminder that magic doesn’t always come from spectacle, it often lives in small things. Especially in the Sahara, where play becomes an act of resilience, and joy a language stronger than hardship.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 102195496
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 17.653528° W 7.522028°
SHOT DATE: March 5, 2022
SOURCE SIZE: 6960×4641
The Nomad’s Red Door
On the edge of the Guelb el Richat, the mysterious Eye of the Sahara, lies a semi-nomadic settlement where tradition meets individual expression.
Among the scattered dwellings, one hut stands apart: carefully crafted, warm in tone, and marked by a striking red door. Its shape and attention to detail reveals pride and personality.. The man in the frame is its owner, proud, composed, and rooted in his way of life. His presence adds weight to the structure, turning it from a shelter into a reflection of character. This photograph doesn’t just capture a place, it captures the dignity found in making a home, even in the most shifting landscapes.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 102188878
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 21.012639° W 11.429361°
SHOT DATE: March 8, 2025
SOURCE SIZE: 3408×2272
Desert Thirst
Far from any road or modern infrastructure, in the heat of Mauritania’s remote sands, a community organizes water with method and care. Camels gather in rotating groups as shepherds and herders work in harmony to ensure every animal drinks. There is discipline here, and deep knowledge, refined over generations. In this photograph, water is not just a resource, it is the central ritual around which desert life pivots.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 102187962
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 17.382287° W 7.191705°
SHOT DATE: March 5, 2022
SOURCE SIZE: 6960×4641
Nomad Explorer
Somewhere near the forgotten ruins of Ksar el Barka, a chance encounter reveals a timeless scene: two chameliers, mid-journey, crossing the Sahara with quiet determination. One of them rides confidently, scanning the horizon with the focus of someone who knows how to read the desert like a book. There’s no performance here, just movement shaped by experience, silence, and purpose. This photograph pays tribute to the enduring figure of the nomad explorer: not guided by maps, but by memory, instinct, and the rhythm of the land.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 102066721
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 18.387102° W 12.212420°
SHOT DATE: March 15, 2022
SIZE: 6414×4275
Dancing with the Wind
Chikali, a close friend with a story as layered as the dunes behind him, walks lightly through a surreal stretch of desert where sand, salt, and sky meet in contrast. His flowing boubou catches the wind like sails in open sea, becoming an extension of his presence. Here, between shifting textures and colors, the human form becomes part of the landscape’s choreography.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 102064616
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 19.837631° W 13.612843°
SHOT DATE: February 2, 2020
SOURCE SIZE: 5272×3515
Get the Nomad Look
While tending to his camels at the water trough, this elder stood with a quiet but commanding presence. With dignity wrapped in blue and a gaze that holds both pride and patience, he allowed me to take this portrait, a gesture of trust I won’t forget. This is not a posed look, but a lived one: a statement of resilience, of heritage worn every day under the Sahara sun. His posture says what words cannot.
INSCRIPTION DATE: July 31, 2025
ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: 101981048
LOCATION: Mauritania
COORDINATES: N 17.382287° W 7.191705°
SHOT DATE: March 5, 2022
SOURCE SIZE: 6960×4640