Photo shoot location – Watch out for the crocodiles! The Gambia, West Africa

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Those crocodiles are most definitely not ornamental! Jason Florio at work – image © Helen Jones-Florio

 

Kachikally Sacred Crocodile Pool is certainly an interesting place to shoot – you just need to watch your step, constantly. Thanks to Musa, our fixer (a person who is hired as a guide, due to their local knowledge of any given area, to help facilitate assignments) and caretaker of the pool, Jason and I met with some young Gambian boys, to work further on our traditional masquerade project, which we started last year, here in The Gambia.

The three boys turned up with a couple of rice sacks, a bunch of leafy branches, and what looked like a few scraps of bright red fabric. Within half an hour, they were transformed into Kankurangs, and  fully in character – jiggling branches, menacingly clashing machetes together, and omitting the rather alarming high-pitched screeches that seem to be the modus operandi of every Kankurang, and which always has the desired effect of unnerving everyone around them.

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Jason Florio at work – image © Helen Jones-Florio

 

I’ll be posting more updates about this ongoing masquerade project as and when we find more subjects to photograph.

HJF

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HJF – In search of masquerades at the Roots Homecoming Festival, 2014, The Gambia – image © Jason Florio

 

Related post: Kankurang on the beach

 

 

 

NGO, Concern Universal: Ebola, hygiene, and hand washing – image by Jason Florio

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Image © Jason Florio for Concern Universal, The Gambia and Senegal, West Africa (click image to ‘like’ CU’s FB page)

 

To view more of Jason Florio’s images, for CU, in West Africa, please visit their website.

Related posts:

‘Off to work we go… Ebola-free Gambia, for Concern Universal‘

‘The Gambia, West Africa, paying the price for being Ebola-Free‘

‘Hello…my name is Alieu…Tippy Tap hand-washing hygiene in The Gambia‘

 

Photo of the Day: post swim happiness, The Gambia, West Africa

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Image © Helen Jones-Florio, Kotu beach, The Gambia, West Africa

 

I swear this little boy always has the biggest, most infectious, smile on his face… .

HJF

Floriotravels on Instagram

 

Exhibition opening: ‘Silafando’ – Jason Florio’s Gambian village chief portraits

Friday 3rd April, 2015 – Gaya Art Café, The Gambia, West Africa

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Abdou & Ebou (2nd & 3rd from left), Helen, Jason, Sarjo (Abdou’s daughter), and Samba Leigh – Gaya Art Cafe exhibition opening

 

It was an honour to have Gambian team members present (above), at the exhibition opening, from both the ‘Short Walk in the Gambian Bush – 930km African odyssey‘ 2009 (on which Florio’s ‘Silafando‘ portraits were shot), and from ‘River Gambia – 1044km source-sea African odyssey‘, 2013-14, expeditions.

 

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What a pleasure to welcome so many familiar faces and to meet new ones. It’s also not uncommon, at Gambian events, to rub shoulders – have a chat over a drink and canapés, as one does – with Ministers, Ambassadors, High Commissioners… . It’s what I really like about being in this tiny West Africa country – few people, however important their status, are truly unapproachable (Jason even had a brief tête-à-tête with the President a short while ago). For us, this informality has been invaluable in procuring official letters of introduction, to ease our passage as we travelled along by land and river, on both our West Africa expeditions.

So, thank you to all those dignitaries who came to support our arts and culture event last Friday, and especially to friends, old and new. Jason and I came away feeling that we’d tasted a little slice of the exhibition gatherings we love to frequent – when we are at home in New York – here at Gaya Art Café, in The Gambia.

Speaking of Gaya’s – huge thanks to everyone there for all their support and for allowing us to exhibit the Gambian chiefs in such a splendid setting. You guys rock – as does Gregor O’ Gorman, who curates the exhibitions there.

If you missed the opening, fear not. The exhibition will run until the end of April, 2015 – Mon-Saturday – outside in the garden and inside the restaurant.

'Silafando' The Gambia © Jason Florio
Herouna Tunkara with his Horse – ‘Silafando’ The Gambia © Jason Florio

 

You can see Jason Florio’s complete, award-winning, ‘Silafando‘ body of work on his website : floriophoto.com

The Florios – Helen & Jason

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The Florios with the Gambian chiefs – Silafando’ – at Gaya Art Cafe, The Gambia