I was thrilled and honored to be a guest on WBAI’s First Voices Indigenous Radio this morning with John Kane.
You can hear the program here:
http://www.wbai.org/server-archive.html
Click “Play” or “Download” next to the First Voices Indigenous Radio program on Thursday, April 10th at 9am.
It was wonderful to speak with John, who is so passionate about not only preserving ancient traditions, but seeing traditional societies adapt to our rapidly changing world.
“He who is different from me does not impoverish me – he enriches me. ”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Hamar Tribe in the Omo Valley
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There is hardly anyone today that doesn’t take photos. Modern cell phones, if nothing else, has opened up for almost the whole world to be able to capture important moments in each and everyone’s lives. Even when I travel to developing countries I see an abundance of cell phones and I see people of all social strata taking pictures. Of course there are still many, many people that cannot afford a cell phone let alone a camera, but never before has so many pictures been taken every moment of a day as today. As I wrote in my post Too Much of Nothing, we snap as many pictures today, every two minutes, as were taken in the entire 19th century, another boom time for photography.
I would think most people take photos as a means for storing memories. For them it’s just fun to have pictures from the last…
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“There’s a tendency for those of us in the dominant Western culture to view traditional people—even when we’re sympathetic to their plight—as quaint and colorful, but reduced to the sidelines of history, while the real world, which of course is our world, continues moving forward. We see these societies as failed attempts at modernity, as if they’re destined to fade away by some natural law, as if they can’t cope with change. That’s simply not true. Change is the one constant in history. All societies in all times and in all places constantly adapt to new possibilities for life.” The Suri Tribe in the Omo Valley
Wade Davis
“Some people say: “What does it matter if these cultures fade away.” The answer is simple. When asked the meaning of being human, all the diverse cultures of the world respond with 10,000 different voices. Distinct cultures represent unique visions of life itself, morally inspired and inherently right. And those different voices become part of the overall repertoire of humanity for coping with challenges confronting us in the future. As we drift toward a blandly amorphous, generic world, as cultures disappear and life becomes more uniform, we as a people and a species, and Earth itself, will be deeply impoverished.”
Wade Davis
In the Omo Valley, Ethiopia
“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”
Wade Davis
Some good news news for me today. I was a category winner in the prestigious 6th Pollux Award – CULTURE AND DAILY LIFE with two of my new images from Ethiopia. SECOND PRIZE: “Suri Woman of the Omo Valley”, “Hamar Family in the Omo Valley” and I will be invited to Spain to exhibit at the 3rd International Biennial of Documentary and Fine Art Photography to be held in Malaga Spain at the Municipal Museum, opening on September 18th, 2014.
I was amazed by what I saw In the Omo Valley- the mixture of customs – beautiful and brutal in equal measure and am so happy to have the work recognized.
Suri Women Of The Omo
Hamar Family in the Omo
Home printing my images from the Omo Valley in Ethiopia. Preparing for my trip to Texas-to present my work to museum curators, galleries and collectors from all over the world, along with photographers from all over the world, at Houston’s Fotofest Biennial. 16 reviews in 4 days… whew…
Now working on the images from a visit to a cattle camp. This is where the men go to take care of the cattle; a very prestigious job. Cattle are enormously important to the Suri. They don’t see cattle simply as material assets but as life-long, sustaining companions. The average male in the Suri tribe owns from 30 to 40 cows. Men are not allowed to marry until they own a substantial number of cows. Then the cows are given to the bride’s family after the wedding ceremony. They are used for trading, and as a source of milk and blood, they are treated very well and rarely killed.
The men and boys in the camp work all day with their cattle and then they dance by the fires at night after covering their bodies with ash.
Happy to be featured on my friend Tewfic El-Sawy’s informative and inspiring blog, The Travel Photographer.
http://thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com/2014/02/terri-gold-in-mist-of-time-omo-valley.html
Into the Mists of Time – Terri Gold
Terri Gold is an award-winning photographer and artist based in New York City, and has built an impressive reputation for her infrared imagery of rituals, rites of passage, festivals, celebrations and portraits from all over the world.
Her artistic creativity and energy were patently obvious during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™which she had joined in January 2010, as she moved from one photo shoot in a village to the next photographing with her two cameras; one “normal” like those used by the rest of us, and the second professionally modified to shoot infrared.
The Omo Valley of Ethiopia is home to eight different tribes numbering around 200,000 people in total, and their traditional way of life and culture are threatened by the Ethiopian government introducing and planning large infrastructure projects to the area, and while these will provide better medical and educational facilities, trading and many associated benefits to the tribes, there are also governmental programs aimed at forcibly resettling them.
Terri Gold’s work has been described as “interpretive in nature and incorporates the use of infrared light and the invisible light spectrum.” I’m not sure how Terri photographs these days, but at one point of time she would wear up to four cameras around her neck; a digital camera, a digital camera converted to infrared, a XPan with cross-processed film (or B&W), and a Mamiya 7.
-Tewfic El-Sawy
Traveling through the mists of time to the Omo Valley in Ethiopia
just home – an adventure beyond words and worlds
so many tales to tell and photos
just beginning to work with them
on the go every day
up at 5 am to catch the beautiful dawn in the tribal villages
amazing skies every day
cascading clouds blue skies
afternoon thunder rumbling
short rain and then sometimes a rainbow
the people and customs and cultural diversity astounding
mankind may have begun here
though this may be the endgame
the Turkish are clearing the forests and planting cotton fields
the Chinese government is building a massive dam project and the flood plain agriculture practiced here for all time
will soon end
we talk with the local guides
the people know to varying degrees that their life will be changing very soon
they would prefer to be left alone and untill recently
lived on the barter system
but now they pose for us
and ask for money for each picture
we feel like human Atms
and they feel
like they have reluctantly joined this game
I mean we show up at their homes and villages
(I wonder sometimes should we even be here)
and they might as well make what they can from it
it sets up a strange dynamic
that is hard to pierce
but if one takes the time
and spends some time in a village
and puts down their camera
and takes part in some of the rituals
It is possible to connect and hear each other
and say I want to tell your stories
I hope there is a way to move forward
for tribal life to progress
to have better health care and schools and clean water
new income streams and some economic potential
with out obliterating tribal traditions
and I wonder what’s next…
I think of how many times in history this story has been played out by native populations
trying to save their way of life…
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Nevada Wier is an award-winning travel and fine-art photographer specializing in the remote corners of the globe and the cultures that inhabit them. Enjoy her musings, creative tips, and practical suggestions. Excelsior!
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