The adventurer's house Photo

Photographer’s Note

The adventurer I'm referring to in this picture is not the little boy with sun-glasses but the French explorer René Caillié. He was not the first European to reach the legendary desert city of Timbuktu, but the first who got there and survived the journey back home.
Caillié managed to reach Timbuktu in 1828 after a long and difficult journey across West Africa. During the few weeks that he spent in the city he stayed in this house, as indicated by a plaque above the gate. He is said to have been very disappointed by what he saw, because in the 19th century there was little left of the glorious city of the Middle Ages.
These days Timbuktu is regarded as a world heritage by the UNESCO and some restoration work is going on, such as building a new library to save the thousands of ancient books kept in private homes in the city.
This picture is scanned from a Kodachrome slide.

mikolaj_kawa, saxo042, molla, fanni has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mikolaj_kawa (31161) 2008-02-05 1:36

Hello Gert! Very interesting place. Good POV. Good geometry. Nice capture. Good luck!

saxo042 (16250) 2008-02-05 7:47

Hej Gert,
The verical lines by the shadows build this picture ine a fine composition together with the stonewall structure. But the lack of natural colours makes me wonder again if not a B&W presentation would be more suitable. At you would not expect any colours at all. I´m not making a WS, better you try it yourself.
Hälsningar från Göteborg
Gunnar

molla (6891) 2008-02-05 13:25

Hej Gert,
An other good image from the the part of africa where the sand dust have entombed part of it's culture be what's still there is remarkable. and an other form of explorer is seen on the picture an young explorer of western culture seen behind a pair of sunglasses.
Hej Hopp
Anders