This is my entry for #monomad challenge by
Hello to all!
I have been away for a trip in Benin, western Africa, for a photograpic tour about life, men and villages in this country very different to Italy.
So, after my trekking in Pakistan, I'm ready with a good and new stuff about this wonderful and not well known country.
Here we are in the south of Benin, in Possotomè, around a big lake.
Possotomè is an arrondissement in the Mono department of Benin. The name derives by the first man who settled here, so Possotomè means, in the local language, 'the place of Posso'.
This huge lake has many villages all around it, thanks to the water plenty of fishes. You can meet women fishing, but most of fishers are men, and they start very early in the morning to catch fishes, with wooden boats, using typical fishing tecniques. After an hard work, fishes are given to women, who sell it in the local market, also by night (sometimes market is illuminated by candles, with a magical atmosphere).
Here a family fishing. Children learn to fish very early.
This place is famous also for thermal water, and there is also a mineral water company called Possotomè.
We stayed a lot of time here, I like the reflection of people in the water, doing their daily activities. I think this atmosphere is ideal for the black and white photography, giving a feeling of alterity and to be in another kind of world.
This is a very quiet place, without the stress of our life in European cities. We want even more, and we feel the lack of something missing every day. Here, they have less than ours, but they are happy, they have all they need, and they preserve and love their nature, generation by generation, in a timeless circle, because of natural resources and men are linked by the same destiny.
Pictures taken with Sony Alpha 7iii.
October 2022.