Away From The Camera
Nick Loomis: As a freelancer, I travel a lot for work. When the Festival du Sahel rolled around last “winter” in the Lampoul Desert — about a 3-hour drive from my base in Dakar, Senegal — I thought about bringing my camera to do a story on it. I’ve tried to do that before to justify attending certain events, but I usually get too wrapped up in the work to enjoy myself much. It’s a fun job we freelancers have, so sometimes it’s easy to stay clocked-in all the time.
It would’ve been a good story (lots of great music), but I’m glad I left the camera behind. Besides, I don’t think I would’ve been able to perform this death-and-age-defying stunt in the dunes. I’m no spring chicken, but the day I see something like that and don’t say “I want to do a backflip off it,” I am truly old. Even if, like me, you are too old to land, do it while you can because there’s more to life than StoryHunting… I’m just glad my friend Sylvain Cherkaoui didn’t leave his camera at home.
Nick Loomis is a freelance video journalist and consultant covering West Africa from Dakar, Senegal. When he travels in the region, he collects music, beer labels, and stories of workers in Africa’s informal economy, which he posts on his Instagram account (@liloomis) under #africanlabordays.
