The Jump

A Photograph by Joe Penney

My eye measures the distance between the ground and the roof, and I note that the airborne boy is closer to the latter than the former. How did he get there? I also note how, with one of his feet inclined downwards, he is not taking flight. Where does he hope to land? There are three other boys, two above, another holding onto the roof and readying, it seems, to attempt a jump. Their play might seem daredevilry, but they are spurred by aspiration. The boys on the roof have raised their knees, like dancers waiting their turn.

— Emmanuel Iduma

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“Photography is a way to interact with the divine.”

This photograph was taken in Gao, Mali, in 2013. I was covering the French military intervention in Mali and I was wandering around town when I came across kids playing on the roof of the local soccer stadium. I took a bunch of pictures and was lucky enough to make this composition.

I like the colors and the composition, but mainly I like the stride, the fearlessness, and the grace of the jump. I associate this photo with a certain sense of freedom—one of youth, of performance, of confidence, of vision, and of faith. It is one of my best pictures in terms of the energy it conveys. 

For me, photography is a way to interact with the divine. When I take a photograph I like, when I capture how light exquisitely falls on someone, or when I make a composition that excites me, it really feels like I'm connecting with a higher being. Like I'm tapping into something that goes beyond me or the person I'm photographing. I didn't make the image beautiful; there was beauty before my eyes and I was lucky enough to witness it. It's almost like a drug in a sense that I can really feel high from the process. God has brought beauty into the world and I feel like I am honoring it. And when I don't photograph for a while, I feel I'm suppressing a part of myself.

— Joe Penney

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About Joe Penney

Joe Penney is a director/DOP, photographer, and journalist based in NYC and Lagos, Nigeria. He directed a documentary, Sun of the Soil: The Story of Mansa Musa, about the reign of Mali's 14th-century king. Penney's articles and essays have been published by The Intercept, The New York Times, Quartz, Reuters and Paris journals. He was West Africa photo bureau chief for Reuters, and his pictures have appeared in Geo, Jeune Afrique, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Time, among others.  Penney co-founded Sahelien.com, a news company covering the Sahel region, in 2013. More on his website, and Instagram.

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Last Week — “Abdusatar,” by Abdurrauf Ben Madi

Abdusatar is a construction worker I spent a day with trying to document his life at work, home and with his friends, in order to focus on the human side of his daily life. I see the long jacket which hides the face of Abdusatar as a metaphor for how the community ignores him and other people doing a great job for the community but who the community doesn’t give to in return.

Read more.

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SUPPORT TENDER PHOTO

I am grateful to Joseph Omoh Ndukwu for his feature essay on Tender Photo published in Contemporary And.

This is the 77th edition of this publication, which also read on web (best for viewing images), and via the Substack iOS/Android apps.

Every Wednesday I feature one photograph and the photographer who took it: you’d read a short caption from me, and a statement from the photographer. Every Saturday, between June 3–August 5, I’m writing a series of micro-essays in response to sequences of photographs previously featured on the newsletter. My hope is to engage with early to mid-career African photographers, and to create a platform in which photographers lead the cataloguing and criticism of their work.

Photographers can now submit their work for consideration.

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