Tuareg's and Bambaras

In 2009 I was invited to the Festival au Desert, a music festival in the Sahara desert 65 km outside of Timbuktu in Mali who's proceeds went towards the Tuareg tribe. Because of the turbulent political situation in Mali the music festival has since been put on hold but the rich musical heritage of Mali still lives on. The series of photographs I took while I was in Mali captures the two ethnic groups that live there: The Tuaregs and The Bambaras that I met in Bamako, the capital of Mali. Whilst the Tuaregs, otherwise known as "Blue People" possess a natural poise and have an aristocratic, regal nature, the Bambaras who inhabit the majority of the Mali population exuberate a natural positivity despite the fact that Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. The children made do with whatever they could find to use as toys and would naturally pose and be excited to be photographed. I fell in love with Mali and its people, whichever the tribe, and found that their inner beauty to be very profound and heart warming. I hope that it comes across in this series of photographs.