As refugees flood across the borders into Niger and Burkina Faso and the powers that be in Mali's capital, Bamako, try to curtail the chaos caused by last month's military coup, most of the world will see Mali for the first time in the context of political turmoil. This series of photographs, taken last year on a six week journey from Bamako to the northern mud town of Djenne, pays homage to this hot, dusty, landlocked West African country. Here are Mali's ordinary (some would say extraordinary) people; their smiles, their lives, their country...