We are living in an era where African people migrating to Europe are considered just numbers. Over recent years newspapers have reported daily how many migrants have arrived on the shore of Sicily, how many have died and how many are kept in camps on the Lybian coasts. In an increasing xenophobic wave crossing all over Europe and USA, Westerners seem to have forgotten the humanity behind the numbers. Few are interested in the stories of the migrants, their previous role in society, the reason why they decided to leave their country.
The photographic project People of Tamba, composed of 200 pictures, aims to create a typological catalogue of the society of Tambacunda the largest city in the country’s most internal and rural region and point of departure for most of the Senegalese migrants.
Inspiration for the project is the work People of the Twentieth Century by the German photographer August Sander. A series of portraits of real individuals and their roles within German society just before the rise of the Nazi regime.