In Dakar I walk around the city and watch. The photographs I take are results of a long-standing observation of urban life and its continuous changes. For a long time I have been attracted to some situations or urban installations and finally I managed to find words to describe what I was looking at and what I was searching for in this city.

This image is one of the very first ones I took when I decided I wanted to invest in photography as an artistic practice. For someone who was slowly daring to call herself a photographer and an artist I was pleased by how it turned and relieved to see that I could trust my instincts.

In the moment while creating this photograph, I found myself wondering why this young man showed up to a masquerade performance in a mask. Was he merely trying to mimick the situation? Was it a way for him to feel more like a part of the festival? To embody the tradition of masquerades and masked dances? Or perhaps he just thought it cool? Whichever way, I couldn’t escape the thoughts and ideas that this sight conjured up in my mind. 

During the protest in Alausa, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was routinely barricaded from 12pm till 6pm daily. On this day, the vehicle of the Nigerian Army drove on the wrong side of the road in order to by-pass the barricade and protesters on the other side of the road. I thought there was going to be a clash when I saw protesters running towards the vehicle, so I instantly focused my lens on the man who laid on the road daring the Nigerian army to come run over him. Instinctively, the soldiers drove away.