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Ahoueke Hilaire
The Terrou-Bi pool at dusk, timber terrace bar and palms facing the Atlantic.

Hôtel Terrou-Bi · Dakar · 2025

Hôtel Terrou-Bi, Dakar: two days to photograph the beach, the pool and the Senegalese kitchen

The Terrou-Bi is a five-star on the Corniche Ouest in Dakar, with a private beach, a marina and a casino. The quote was signed on 10 February 2025, the shoot ran on the 13th and 14th, and retouched photographs were delivered on 3 March. The commission was renewed twice in the year that followed.

Services
Hospitality photography, Food photography, Social video, Dakar
Credits
Hôtel Terrou-Bi

Context

Hôtel Terrou-Bi stands on the Corniche Ouest, boulevard Martin Luther King, between central Dakar and the airport. It is a five-star with 168 rooms and 10 suites, five bars and restaurants, a private beach, a pool, a casino and boat trips. The quote was signed on 10 February 2025 with the property’s head of marketing, for two shooting days on the 13th and 14th.

Challenge

Two days for a property of 178 keys, its beach, its gardens, its restaurants and its teams: the schedule mattered more than the kit. On top of that came the light of Dakar in February, vertical and cloudless from ten in the morning, bounced twice over by pale sand and by the ocean. Outdoors, the usable window runs no longer than two hours in the morning and an hour and a half in the evening.

Approach

The days were cut by the light rather than by the spaces. The 13th went to the teams and the service, in the kitchen and in the dining rooms, where the light does not dictate. The property asked for the pool and the beach on the morning of the 14th, which is exactly the hour when the sand stops burning the frame; the slot was held. Dishes were photographed at the pace of service and never remade for the camera. Mid-production I proposed adding slow, contemplative food videos built for the property’s Reels rather than standard cutaways. The proposal was accepted and shot on the spot.

Deliverables

Retouched photographs were delivered on 3 March 2025, together with the video loops shot during production. The selection covers the exteriors, the private beach, the gardens, the food and the teams, horizontal and vertical.

Usage rights

The images are made for the property’s website and social channels. Releases are on file for everyone appearing in frame.

Outcome

The collaboration was renewed twice within the year. A purchase order was issued in early April 2025 for content creation at Le Diamono, the property’s listening bar, with a scout on 9 April and three shooting days on the 10th, 11th and 12th. A third commission was approved on 5 November 2025 for a photo and video production in December. All three commissions are set in context on the food photographer in Dakar page.

Credits

Client
Hôtel Terrou-Bi, Dakar
Place
Corniche Ouest, boulevard Martin Luther King, Dakar
Quote signed
10 February 2025
Shoot
13 and 14 February 2025
Delivery
3 March 2025
Services
Hospitality photography, food photography, social video
White loungers under a timber pergola beside an infinity pool open onto the Atlantic.
The pool and its pergola, facing the Atlantic. Shot early, before the sun climbs above the corniche.
Looking down on the private beach, thatched parasols in a row, palms and the marina basin behind.
The private beach from the upper floors. This is the view the property wanted on the morning of the 14th, and the only hour when the sand does not burn the frame.
Pool at dusk, tilework reflected in the water, timber terrace bar and palms facing the ocean.
End of day by the pool. The pattern on the pool floor only reads once the light has fallen enough for the surface to stop glaring.
Looking down on a garden path, a man in a white boubou walking between the palms and the basin.
The gardens between the corniche and the beach. The vertical frame is the one the property publishes on its social channels.
Arriving along a glazed corridor, suitcase in hand, warm end-of-day light on the parquet.
The arrival, played in the glazed upper corridor rather than at the desk: the light there is whole and the setting holds with nothing added.
Three women in boubous take tea on a terrace above the pool, the beach and the bay of Dakar.
Tea on an upper terrace. Behind, the pool, the private beach and the city climbing back toward the corniche.
Plate of rice and slow-cooked meat on a woven mat, a whole red chilli on the rim.
A dish from the Senegalese menu, on a woven mat. The whole chilli is the one the kitchen sets down itself at plating.
Terracotta dish of grilled sea bream, lobster, prawns and calamari, with a green juice beside it.
The catch of the day, served in its terracotta. Everything is cooked for the service, not for the photograph: the dish sets the time available.
Overhead view of a table, four pairs of hands serving themselves from the same seafood platter.
The same table from above, at the moment of sharing. It is the only frame in the set where the dish has already been started.
Hands holding a fistful of red chillies in the kitchen, in raking light on a worktop.
In the kitchen, during the service of the 13th. The team set depends on frames like this one: a gesture, not a pose.
Chocolate dessert, quenelle and piped peaks of cream, caramelised nut shards on the plate.
The dessert. Chocolate is the hardest material on the menu: it returns nothing under frontal light.
Barmaid in an apron behind the outdoor counter, shaker and jigger in hand, a coconut set in front.
At the outdoor bar, during service. The shaker and the jigger are the two objects that date a bar photograph: they had to be sharp.
Three women in pastel dresses hold cocktails under the palms, shot from below against blue sky.
The lifestyle set, from below. The glasses are held high so the liquid stays readable against the sky.
Lying on the bow of a moored boat, a glass in hand, turquoise water and the marina breakwater behind.
At the marina. Boat trips are part of what the property offers, and the frame is made at the quay, before departure.

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