Antoine Schneck | Mali
Photo � Antoine Schneck | All Rights Reserved Following the recent racist vulgarities uttered by the White House resident describing African, Caribbean and South American nations (among others), I decided to feature photographs of Malians by French photographer Antoine Schneck as a riposte. I have rarely posted about Mali on The Travel Photographer blog and for those of us who need a geographical refresher, it's a landlocked country in West Africa, and is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 square miles). Its population is 18 million, and its capital is Bamako. Setting aside its troubled recent politics, Malian music is glorious, and is derived from the griots , who are known as "Keepers of Memories". Its most well known is the late guitarist Ali Farka Tour� and the Tuareg band Tinariwen, and the wonderful Fatoumata Diawara and Babani Kon�. Schneck tells us that he starts the process of his portrait-making...