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.
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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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.
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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Returning the gaze - sometimes with an indignant look of resistance 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.
Small Arbore settlement in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia, East Africa. Shot directly under the noonday sun near the end of a long dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade. explore#20
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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Tuareg from Gao, northern Mali, West Africa.
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Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) noblewoman with tattooed lips and gold earrings - semi-nomadic pastoral settlement in the Hombori region of central Mali. High resolution Noritsu Koki film scan, Asahi Pentax SP Spotmatic, (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976.
Peul women of this region often tattoo their lips, gums and the area around the mouth before marriage, a painful aesthetic practice and rite of passage signifying marital status.
The extravagant gold earrings or "kwottenai kanye" symbolize the wealth and prestige of a husband or family based largely on the ownership of cattle among the semi-nomadic pastoral Peul of this region. They are also an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, usually passed on as a gift from a husband to his wife or an heirloom to a daughter on the death of her mother.
The large earrings are made by local smiths or artisans concentrated mostly in the Mopti region of central Mali. They are crafted from a 14-karat bar of gold that is first chiseled and heated over a fire, then hammered into thin blades and twisted into a four-lobe shape.
This proud and elegant Peul woman is likely from the class of “free nobles” (mostly herders, religious and political leaders, some cultivators) at the top of a highly stratified Peul society. Ethnographers distinguish this class from lower-tiered occupational groups or “castes” (griot story tellers and song-praisers, artisans, blacksmiths, potters, woodworkers ) and former slaves (labourers, brick makers, house builders).
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission. expl#83
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