FESTIVALS Artistiques et Culturels au Pays Dogon

Monday, January 10, 2011

Frank Janssens

Frank Janssens (Herentals, Belgium – 1968) started studying photography in the 1980’s in Antwerp. Because of his restless character, he soon gave up school and started traveling the world. To pay for his extensive travels, he worked on farms and waited tables. Except for a few tryouts, Frank actually never lived anywhere. Since the beginning of this century, Frank has worked as a tour guide in Africa and the Middle East. While traveling, he is always on the lookout for a story, which he can translate into an article or a picture frame. In recent years he has published a number of travel articles in different Dutch magazines and travel guides, always seasoned with the right pictures.

Every year the FESTIVALS Artistiques et Culturels au Pays Dogon are held in Mali. It is a two week festival where the Dogon people show their masks and dances. It is being organized in different Dogon villages along the famous cliffs. Apart from the usual mask dances, the Dogon people also perform other acts like women dances. The pictures shown here are from the last  FESTIVALS Artistiques et Culturels au Pays Dogon, which was held between December 22 - 2010 and January 8 - 2011.