• Mohamed, Omar, Diallo or Siby are African and photographers. These image hunters come from Mauritania, Senegal or Guinea Conakry. In this region of Africa photography is still socially important. Yagfa, dean of photographers from Nouhadibou (Mauritania), explains: "There isn't a Western African fine art photography culture. What we want is the memory".

  From the simple passport picture taken in a kitsch studio to the commissions for weddings, christianing, communions and other social ceremonies..... the job of a photographer in Western Africa is not dead.... however, unlike the western practice, the job is undergoing a transformation.

  "Mechanics". Funny word to call an analogue camera. However, this is the way old photographic equipment is called by professional photographers. Some of them have bridge cameras, or point-and-shoot ones, or electronic analogue ones, but still many of them work with old cameras from the 70s/80s: Konica, Canon, Pentax, Zenith... Others prefer to call themselves as itinerant photographers, most of them have their own studios, with bright facades, usually decorated in colourful vibrant letters by the local "calligrapher".

  Inner parts, mostly lit with neon lights, are often very simple and, generally they have a sofa for clients, a table and several plastic accessories. The walls are covered with boards or fabrics which are used as portrait backgrounds.

  As the renting and material (film, printing, ....) costs are significant it is usual to share the place with other jobs such as tailorist or hairdresser's. Sometimes the studio is in the photographer's home, like Siby's, from Senegal, who says "he needs to have another job to make ends meet". Some of his colleagues are also bricklayers or caretakers.

  Besides, from June till September, during the winter season, which is the rain season in Africa, the business is not that good. Only after the harvest, when the weddings and ceremonies are back.

  For these photographers, especially for the ones in villages, analogue gives certain problems. "Working with film is getting more and more expensive, because the laboratory were I develop my work is 300 kms away from my studio", says a photographer from a village in Podor (Senegal). "I have to pay my trips and usually the clients do not have the the money to pay the photographers they asked for or they come to pick them up two years later.". It's necessary to point out that a 13x18 print costs about 0,70 euros, which is very expensive if we bear in mind that a basic meal costs half of that price.

  There was a time in which African photographers had to "send their work to France to get it developed in black and white", explains a photographer from a village near Maliville, in Guinea Conakry.

  When looking at the situation from the financial viewpoint, there's other important aspects to take into account: as digital photography is cheaper, it could put an end to African's photographers' job.

Digital: between fascination and dissapointment

• To Mohamed, photographer from Nouakchott, Mauritania, the development of digital technology is not neccessarily good for business. "Digital cameras and laptops are getting more and more affordable for local people, and the way they shoot is the similar to ours. If we don't raise the level of our photographic studios, they will get closed soon and only the laboratories will keep open to take personal pictures of their clients. Here, just being the owner of a camera is an added value which allows too many people consider themselves as photographers and set up a business really quickly. Competition is fierce and some people drop prices so they can get by, and besides, there's very little solidarian grouping among photographers."

  Even when having a dark discourse on the business future, Mohamed still sees a way out: training. "Current African photographers haven't got any access to education, and the little theoric knowledge that exists is transmitted orally. They apply a specific adjustment depending on lighting, however this is often wronly learnt", he explains. "The ones who want to be photojournalists need to go to Dakar (Senegal) for their studies as there's no photography schools in Mauritania.".

  The lack of training is seen in the result. Generally the pictures look flat due to the use of a frontal, poorly adjusted flash, the framing is usually unproper too, as well as the focusing. "One day I lowered the speed by mistake," he tells, "and when I developed the images I got amazed how the background could be seen over the subject's face. I realized then that we had very little knowledge of our tools and that we were limited by the adjustments we already knew. In my opinion it is certain that, with no proper training or equipment we are going straight to the decadence of this job."