An elderly Hamar woman with cane at the weekly market in Turmi, a small multi-ethnic frontier town in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of Ethiopia, East Africa. Adorned with seeded necklaces, brass bracelets, and goatskin clothing.
The Hamar are semi-nomadic herders and farmers who live in small settlements or hamlets scattered across the hills, plains, wooded riverines, and dry thorny bush terrain in Ethiopia's lower Omo Valley, near the border with northern Kenya and South Sudan. explore#133
© National Geographic Yourshot (Editor's Favourite, August 2018). Story and assignment: “Rethinking Portraiture.”
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"To possess the world in the form of images is, precisely, to re-experience the unreality and remoteness of the the real." Susan Sontag, On Photography
Biwa, an esteemed Kara elder and charismatic leader, pauses for a moment to volunteer this near-surreal pose during preparations for an early-evening communal dance in a small settlement set high on the east bank of Ethiopia's lower Omo River.
Adorned with finger-painted white-chalk body markings and brass earrings. The ivory lip-button and clay hair bun with ostrich feather reflect a "culture of heroism" shared with other tribes in the region, one that glorifies and rewards individual acts of bravery for killing an enemy or a dangerous wild animal that may threaten the settlement.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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Returning the photographer's gaze - sometimes with a proud and knowing smile, an indignant look of resistance and mimicry, or a long studied stare as the observer becomes the observed. The gaze is returned, the observer othered. Subject owns the gaze for a frozen moment.
Young Tsemai woman with tattooed facial markings at the weekly market in Key Afer, a small multi-ethnic frontier town in the remote lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. Shot near the end of a long hot dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade.
The Tsemai are one of the least known ethnic groups in the valley, numbering around 5000 people concentrated in settlements along the west bank of Weito River.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. expl#11
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© National Geographic Yourshot (Editor's Favourite with Editor's Note, May 2018). Story and assignment: “While on a Walk.”
I looked up to the towering coconut palms swaying overhead during an afternoon stroll near Balapitiya, a small fishing village on the southern coast of Sri Lanka's Low Country. To my delight, I saw a Sinhalese toddy tapper walking quickly for balance on tight coir ropes that ran from treetop to treetop at 30 to 40 feet above ground - all part of an elaborate process for harvesting the sweet milky sap of cut coconut blossoms.
A serendipitous moment in the renowned land of Serendip.
The sap is ultimately fermented into “toddy” or palm wine and distilled into arrack - a stronger, more refined, and highly popular alcoholic beverage.
The ropes are made of strong coir or coconut fiber. Portable equipment carried on these aerial circuits includes two types of knives in a wooden case to slice the spadix, a small wooden mallet or piece of bone to tap the sides of the spathe, a coconut shell containing green leaf paste to control the oozing sap, and a clay pot or gourd to collect the sap.
Toddy tapping is done by men from several castes in the region. An individual tapper can harvest a hundred trees or more in a day as individual treetop circuits are routinely completed. As far as I can tell, this dangerous high-ropewalk harvesting method is solely unique to Sri Lanka. It faces extinction today.
Noritsu Koki QSS-31 digital film scan, shot with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1984. expl#80
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Balinese duck tender with traditional wide-brim rain hat under an early monsoon drizzle - returning from the paddy fields along a path through the original Monkey Forest near Padang Tegal Village, Ubud, Bali.
Digital slide scan, shot with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4) - before modernization and the onslaught of mass tourism that now compromise much of Ubud's original charm, circa 1972. expl#32
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