African Dream

• Photographer
  Yvon Buchmann

I had dreamed of it all my life. I had seen so many reports on Africa during my childhood in the cinema of my village that I was convinced to go home on this first trip to Senegal. Nothing could really surprise me. The colors, the sounds, the smells, the atmosphere, nothing would be foreign to me, everything would be familiar to me. As far as I can remember I always experienced this atmosphere in my dreams ... Not decidedly nothing could astonish me. The bush villages, the savanna, the wild animals, the dances, the African rhythms, all that I have known for so long in my dreams ...

Undoubtedly it was a Polaroid Land Swinger camera that my father had bought when I was about 12 years old who inoculated me with the virus. The magic moment of seeing a picture in 10 seconds under my eyes is out of doubt the source of my passion for images. During my teenage years, a second decisive event that furthered my love for photography was the creation in the village where I lived, of a photo club where I was introduced to the development and printing of photos in black and white.