in Connections & Crossroads

Hadiru said "I mostly rode the National Express back and forth from London to York during my Uni days. I spent many hours on such views. The journey was a time or transformation into and out of different parts of myself, the many worlds I inhabited. I did a lot of reading and writing from the window seat. 

Sometimes you could smell the rain long before it hit. See the vapour in the distance and watch until it speckled then pattered the window. These rivulets were among my favourite forms, when raindrops grouped and together ran a stream. 

At the time I felt this photo best summarised my 'eye' and way of seeing. Looking out the window into an infinite distance, focused on a curious movement in the in-between space."

in Connections & Crossroads

Hadiru said "we hitched a two day ride from a port town near Laayoune to Nouakchott, Mauritania with Dam. He was heading back home to Saint-Louis, Senegal where he would sell the car and be with family. We drove practically nonstop through the Sahara as stopping or getting stranded could be death. The darkness though... The moon on its back, the stars and galaxies a thick and murky pool... Dam would stop at the time to pray. We would get out, look towards infinity in all directions and feel kin with the grains of sand at our feet. 

Later on, I was in the back seat and jolted from sleep. Will and Dam both shocked stiff. We'd hit a drifting sand dune at 100 kmph, not firm enough to flip the car but enough to tilt it a little to the left, riding on two tires before landing again. How strange it is to sleep through a near death experience.

Most of the images and videos from these travels are lost. Some to fire, some on a camera stolen on the Freetown to Lungi ferry. All still moments never lost, memories to hold and together in conversation with my travel companions, reform."

in Connections & Crossroads

Hadiru said "this is a photo of a dear friend of mine. It was taken in 2006 in St Bees, the night before we along with 8 others embarked on a two-week coast to coast walk across Northern England - over the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, to Robin Hood’s Bay.

Walking together was a root in our friendships. A space to learn about each other and ourselves, to adventure, have wonder fill us, stay young and curious."

in Connections & Crossroads

Hadiru said "travelling through Guinea en route to Mali this is one of many ways we crossed rivers - what man propose God dispose - a saying common across my continent. By this point we'd been on the road for over 3 months on travels from the M25 junctions heading south, through Europe into North Africa and round the shoulder and elbow of West Africa. Many roads, rivers, mountains, valleys and borders crossed. All the people and the lives we saw and were invited to spend time in."

in Moments of Movement

Hadiru said “We had accepted a mission, now the final task - to deliver a photograph of 3 generations of family on the Sierra Leone/Guinea border to a daughter in Faranah and pass on news of a boy in Freetown, lodging with my grandfather. Plotting on how, he alerted first by our English, listens over the morning's coffee and greets us with an offer of assistance. He knows that family. Le Chinoise. So called because he studied computer sciences in China, lived also in Japan. Fluent in the tongues of both. A while back in Faranah to care for his ailing father. In between times he runs an Internet cafe and other services. The next days pass in episodes, motorbikes between scenes and moments. Some fall into others. Like how the mysterious sounds following us through the night of our arrival belong to the family of master drummers on the hill top. They invite us to a gathering of a bridal party. There we meet women who can fly.”

in Moments of Movement

in Moments of Movement

in Moments of Movement