EN | DE
  • Baobabs near Andavadoaka

    Antsirabe

  • Salary Bay, Mozambique channel

  • Avenue of the Baobabs

  • Begidro

  • Aluminium Foundry in Ambatolampy

  • Tobacco Storage in Begidro

  • Mantis at the Tsiribihina River

  • Tsiribihina River

  • Fianarantsoa

    Sandbank near Ambatomisay

  • The Baobabs of Andavadoaka

  • Ambatovaky

    Fianarantsoa

  • Fianarantsoa

  • Antsirabe

  • On the Outskirts of Antananarivo

In the Shade of Baobabs

In Madagascar there is a saying:
„Within the bitterness you will find the sweetness.“

It took awhile until I understood this, as I endeavored to discover this distant red island with my camera at the end of 2019.
Already on the boat trip down the Tsiribihina River, which lasted many days, then on the endless sand dunes along the west coast, was the intimate picture of the African landscape in its desolate wild beauty.
In addition, the endless deserted beaches with the luminous blue-green sea and the mangrove forests, the awe-inspiring baobabs, so varied in form and size, the craggy landscapes in the orange light of the evening sun, the furry lemurs in the thickets...

But the sight of the people at work behind wooden ploughs drawn by Zebu cattle, or bent-over in the waters of the rice fields polluted by schistosomiasis, or the elders sitting apathetically on the side of the road in front of dusty mud huts, and children playing in the trash, continued to darken the idyll of an island paradise.
Never before had I witnessed such beautiful people who were so poor, yet filled with such goodness, warmth and cheerfulness.
And never before did I have so much fun taking photos as in Madagascar every photo full of friendliness, every portrait full of pride and thankfullness for the attention. These moments let me see true beauty in all the poverty, which I hopefully was able to capture with the camera.