Tataan
Still photography: Amath Mbaye
What passes between women without a word. And my first time as the photographer on a film.
- Type
- Series
- Released
- 2025
- Language
- Black and white · Wolof
- My role
- Still photography
In Wolof, tataan is the act of placing a basin under the rain and letting it fill, drop by drop. A series in black and white about how care, attention to detail and beauty are passed on to girls, quietly, from a young age.
Drop by drop
In Wolof, tataan is placing a basin under the rain and letting it fill. It is the image Maryam Mbaye chose to speak about what women receive without being told: gestures, words, a way of getting ready. In Senegal, being well prepared is a pride. A language.
Maryam
I met her a few years ago, when she joined Madiaw Ly and me to bring art direction to our campaigns. Together, we relaunched the Solsolat brand. When she started her series, she called me.
I hope you receive this with the same care it was made with.
A new role
I usually direct. Here, for the first time, I was the still photographer. Maryam came with a lookbook and a moodboard; my job was to recreate those images, or find better ones, the moment they appeared, without ever getting in the way of the shoot.
Next to Oumar Bayo Fall, the director of photography, I learned to look at natural light differently: wait for it, follow it, use it.
Réen Yi, and a book
The first episode, Réen Yi, follows women getting ready together for a ndawtal, in the late-afternoon heat. The photographs became a book of their own: hands, fabrics, jewellery, gestures. A quiet archive of what makes beauty.
The project, in its own words
This series also looks at where that cycle begins, in imitation, play, and repetition. From a young age, girls observe what it means to be well prepared, to take care, to pay attention to detail. Beauty is learned as a language of care. This project is my way of holding onto what I grew up seeing, and honoring how these values are quietly transmitted.
Dji follows a child at play, repeating gestures and words she heard, already absorbing what it means to become.
I hope you receive this with the same care it was made with.
What I took from it
- Changing roles makes you better at your own.
- A moodboard is a starting point, not a cage.
- Natural light has to be earned: you have to know how to wait for it.
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