While I support myself doing editorial and advertising work, I have always been a social-documentary photographer at heart. Images tell stories, and stories inspire action. After completing undergrad at The Cooper Union and grad school at The University of Michigan, I began a long-term photo essay filming African-American bikers in the New York Tri-state region. That project landed me a book deal with powerHouse publishers in 2000. "Brooklyn Kings: New York City's Black Bikers went on to become a cult classic and sold thousands of copies around the world. Photo essays not also expand upon the nature of story-telling, they also allow the artist to revisit pre-conceived notions and when necessary, edit. Very few photographers visiting a foreign country for the first time get it right. Time just doesn't permit an extensive study of the culture. For the past fifteen years I have been traveling the world and living between East and West Africa. I tell my colleagues at The UN that Africa needs a PR agent. because so much is being done with so little. Dakar, Sénégal has been my home for the past six years and I have watched its transition into a middle income economy. It is a Muslim country with a open and tolerant constitution. It's very Brooklyn, "Don't start none, won't be none." My two recent monographs, "Dakar Noir" and "The Kingdom of Original Man: Addis Ababa" are completed and I am actively seeking an international publisher. Martin Dixon, Dakar