Photo book on Africa (Sénégal and Kenya) - Photos by Albert Russo and Elena Peters, with texts in English and French by Albert Russo, Eric Tessier and Jérémy Fraise
Albert Russo (photos and pages 2 to 31 inclusive)
2 The savannah stretched in monotonous coppertones, dotted here and there by blisterlike anthills, then tiny clusters of huts would unstring under the plane's tarnished wings. But the bush reigned sovereign and ubiquitous, as if between it and the atmosphere any other object or living particle became an intruder.
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2 Partout s'étendait la brousse, inlassable, seule à seule avec l'atmosphère, comme si entre elles toute vie devenait une intruse. Dorloté par le bourdonnement mécanique, Fabien ferma les yeux pour retrouver un peu de son âme africaine que sept ans d'éloignement avaient ensablée.
3 The cabin's pressurized air made him feel suddenly gloomy; he couldn't get used to the cruel evidence of facts: the country of his birth, now an independent state, had gone through the bloodiest upheavals, and its scars weren’t healed.
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3 L'odeur de la cabine pressurisée le rendit mélancolique, il lui était pénible d'adopter l'idée que, telle une bourrasque, l'indépendance avait ébranlé le pays de sa naissance, et qu’il continuait de saigner.
4 A soft rustle drew him out of his musings: the stewardess was passing a tray of candies. She wore her hair in narrow braids and the whiteness of her teeth sparkled in contrast with her ebony features. Fabien stared at her for a while, projecting his thoughts into the velvety pupils of the young woman, imagining her draped in a gaudy loin-cloth. She was startingly beautiful
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4 Un frôlement le sortit de ses méditations: souriante, l'hôtesse lui tendit un plateau de bonbons. Une chevelure artistement défrisée encadrait son visage d'ébène. Sa bouche lippue découvrait un émail éclatant, son nez à peine épaté achevait de la rendre belle. Fabien la fixa un moment, prolongeant ses pensées dans les pupilles veloutées de la jeune femme. Il l’imaginait drapée d’un pagne aux couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel.
5 A strange feeling ran through his limbs as if the world were suddenly crumbling around him. That mawkish perfume of violet, that prickly beard! Had he ever left the place? Half dizzy, emerging from a whirlwind of images, Fabien tried to put some order in his mind ... what year was this, 1962, 1997, 2004? He would spend a week with his childhood friends, Adele and her husband, in that city which had once been his home.
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5 Une sensation vague le remua comme si tout à présent s'effritait. Ce lieu, ce parfum affadi de violette, cette barbe drue, les avait-il réellement quittés? Pris dans un tourbillon d'images, il en émergea encore à demi-étourdi et s’efforça de replacer les choses chronologiquement... en quelle année étions-nous, 1962, 1997, 2004? Il passerait une semaine avec ses amis d’enfance, Adèle et son mari, dans cette ville qui l’avait vu grandir.
6 His friends had partaken in the nation's painful birth and had decided to stay on. Each pawn moving over the chessboard of politics had ominous repercussions on their every day life; the color of the skin had ceased to be a guarantee for some, a calamity for others.
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6 Une expression résignée marquait ses amis; eux aussi avaient enfanté ce pays, qui était le leur, dans la souffrance. Et jamais ils ne l’avaient quitté. Chaque pion se déplaçant sur l’inextricable échiquier de la politique se répercutait en vicissitudes journalières, la couleur de la peau avait cessé d’être pour les uns une garantie, pour les autres une calamité.
7 During the car trip Fabien imagined that he was turning the moth-eaten pages of an old familiar book. With their doors and windows barricaded against the chronic burglaries, the houses he so well remembered now looked like fortresses. Some of them, deserted a long time ago, stood like skeletons amid the invading brushwood.
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7 Pendant le trajet en auto, Fabien ressentit un pincement au coeur comme s'il tournait les pages d’un vieil album de photos. Les terrains essartés amoncelaient leur broussaille autour de constructions jamais achevées. La plupart des maisons de ce quartier résidentiel ressemblaient à présent à des forteresses, portes et fenêtres barricadées, contre les cambrioIages chroniques.
8 Behind that façade of listlessness, he was unrolling the film of his youth. Only the flamboyant trees enlivened the depressing landscape. An awful stench emanated from the rubbish-laden gutters, whereas rusted garbage disposals lay empty along the streets.
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8 Il essayait de gratter au fond de ce paysage étouffant, le relief de ses jeunes années. Seuls les flamboyants égayaient un peu le ciel lourd de leurs taches striées. Une puanteur insalubre émanait des caniveaux remplis de détritus, les touques rouillées formaient un amas de tristes vestiges.
9 Fabien caught himself grinning; he must have been eight or nine when his father, reversing the car, got them stuck in one of those ditches. Nobody had been hurt; he remembered how much they had laughed, constrained as they had been to walk the rest of the way home in the dark.
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9 Fabien ne put réprimer une grimace, il devait avoir huit ou neuf ans lorsqu'un soir son père, en manoeuvrant la voiture, les précipita dans un de ces caniveaux. Ils furent contraints de poursuivre leur chemin à pied, les éclats de rire résonnaient encore dans sa tête.
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Reviews for "AfricaSoul - photography by Albert Russo and Elena Peters"
Reviewed by Faithtoms Solution
9/16/2025
Hi Albert,
Congratulations on your extraordinary creative journey — from your bilingual and multicultural background to your vivid photography and writing 🎉. Your work in AfricaSoul and other titles captures the heart and texture of Africa with an authenticity few can match. Your ability to tell stories in multiple languages and mediums is truly inspiring.
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