Batik Work in Saint Louis, Senegal

For years I have been working with two brothers from the neighborhood where I stay in Saint Louis — on the island in between river and sea.

They work in a backyard with no electricity. What they have instead is knowledge: decades of experience as master dyers, a fire, and large iron pots.

Fabrics are folded, gathered, tied — each technique a precise decision about where the color will go and where it won't. My favorite: the fabric folded and pressed between two wooden slats. Where the wood holds, the dye cannot reach. When the slats come off, the white remains.

Each piece the result of precise preparation — folding, tying, and passing through the dye.