I was in Senegal for the presidential elections in 2000, shooting for the New York Times. I had only been in West Africa for a few months and was still really struggling with the culture shock and the challenges of the work (I had been tear gassed on my first day on the job at a rally in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Needless to say, it had been my first time.) This rally in Dakar, held the day before the election, was the first time that I started to feel comfortable as a photographer. Looking out over the heads of tens of thousands supports, watching them fight off a police armoured vehicle that was trying to break up the gathering, and still managing to get some decent photos without soiling myself was, at the time, a momentous achievement.

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