Taken in south central Niger, February 2009.

I sat down with this man in the shade to shelter from the sweltering heat of the arid Sahel in a remote location, Golondi. We drank salty, sweet nomad tea together and spoke through my guide and interpreter, Hakilou. Both he and I had traveled long distances to be at this sprawling, once-weekly market that had emerged out of nowhere for a day; destined to fade back into obscurity when the traders disappeared again in a few hours. My guide told me that the distinctive facial tattoos that can be seen in this portrait marked him out as a Fula nomad of the most remote and isolated origins, and it emerged he'd walked hundreds of miles over the past weeks from his birth place in the far east of Niger. This meeting - and my memory of our time together - stays with me to this day.

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