Photographer’s Notes:

I was on my way to Nouakchott the only major city in Mauritania. We were in the middle of the Western Sahara desert. I was traveling with musicians in a bus from Senegal, we were stopped many times during the night by Police Stops to have our papers checked and pay for their tea, if you know what I mean. This was about 10 AM in the morning and we had all the curtains were pulled on the bus, I put my camera between the slit in the fabric to get this image. Everyone on the bus was afraid the police would see and we would all be in trouble. Even though this image is titled Police Stop I often call it Nirvana, because of the mule and his life in the desert.