British photographer James Morris captures stunning architectural portraits of adobe structures of sub-Saharan West Africa in Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, Photographs by James Morris.

Morris traveled to remote villages and desert communities during four-month stays in 1999 and 2000 to photograph these organic, labor-intensive adobe structures. Through his travels in the Sahal region – Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso - Morris created a typological record of regional adobe buildings, but he also conveyed an artist’s rendering of West African architecture that reflects the sensuous, surreal, and sculptural quality of these distinctive buildings. 

The 50 striking photographs of humble dwellings and impressive mosques with fluid curves and angular lines reflect a depth and tactile quality. The two basic elements so effectively emphasized in the photographs are earth and light.  But it is the term butabu, which describes the process of moistening earth with water in preparation for building, that incorporates the human presence as intrinsic to the creation of these structures. The earth and array of rich surface textures in these images are a vivid marker of the continual communal effort required to maintain and upkeep these buildings even as they are threatened by the uncertainties of weather and the encroachment of Western technology.

Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, Photographs by James Morris is organized and toured by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions (CATE), Pasadena, California.