Joe Penney is a journalist, photographer, and filmmaker based in New York City. He is the co-founder of the Mali-based news West African regional news website Sahelien.com and was chief photographer for Reuters in West and Central Africa from 2012-2016. He covered major political events in the region such as the French intervention in Mali in 2013, the revolution in Burkina Faso in 2014, and the war against Boko Haram. His forthcoming short film, “Mansa Musa and the Erasure of History,” is currently in post-production. He is on Twitter and Instagram @joepenney.
Mali: Poetry of Life:
A girl carries a child on her back during a sandstorm outside Timbuktu, Mali, July 29, 2013.An artisanal gold miner peers into a small scale mine where his colleague is working in Kalana, Mali August 26 2012. Boys play on the roof of the entrance to a football stadium in Gao February 20, 2013. People search for their names on lists that indicate where to vote, in Timbuktu July 26, 2013.A woman and her child attend an electoral campaign rally for presidential candidate Dramane Dembele as they look on from a rooftop in Timbuktu, July 26, 2013. Dembele, a day laborer, lights a cigarette at a sugar cane plantation in Siribala, Mali, January 24, 2013.
A child walks past electoral campaign posters on a church in Bamako, Mali, July 16, 2013.A woman gets her temperature taken at the Malian border with Guinea to check for signs of Ebola virus, October 2, 2014.A man rests between two bars at a stadium, where a rally was being held against the seizure of northern Mali by Tuareg and Islamist rebels, in the capital Bamako April 11, 2012.Bazin designer Baba Sereme poses for a picture in a bazin outfit he dyed at his home in Bamako, Mali, October 8, 2015.A man sleeps next to an anti-drug mural in Bamako, Mali, September 19, 2012. Men smoke in a room in Gao, Mali, February 24, 2013.
Burkina Faso: Echoes of Thomas Sankara:
Soldiers shoot in the air to try to stop anti-government protestors from entering the parliament building in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, October 30, 2014.An anti-government protestor throws a tear gas canister at riot police in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, October 30, 2014. An anti-government protester wears a sash taken from the looted parliament building in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, October 31, 2014.Women watch election results that will decide the new president in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, December 1, 2015.
Mali: Military and Conflict
A fish market is seen through a hole in the wall in Konna, Mali, January 27, 2013.Shopkeeper Mohamed Toure enters his destroyed shop at the main market in Gao February 23, 2013. The market was destroyed during fighting between Islamists and the Malian and French armies.A boy holds a homemade French flag in the recently liberated town of Douentza, Mali January 29, 2013. A soldier patrols outside the Radisson hotel after it was attacked by Al-Qaeda militants in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015.
Mauritanian Iron Ore
Mauritania’s main export is iron, mainly toward Europe and China. These pictures show the process of extracting Africa’s natural resources to be used in wealthier countries.
A truck drives along a road at the TO-14 iron ore mine in Zouerate, Mauritania, June 23, 2014.A man climbs down from a rooftop in the iron ore mining town of Zouerate, Mauritania, June 23, 2014.A woman walks in front of houses for SNIM workers in the iron ore mining town of Zouerate, Mauritania, June 23, 2014.Passengers take a break to pray while traveling on SNIM train carrying iron ore and mine workers across the desert outside Nouadhibou, Mauritania, June 25, 2014. Passengers take a break while traveling on SNIM train carrying iron ore and mine workers across the desert outside Nouadhibou, Mauritania, June 25, 2014.
Divna Popov 