Far from the madding crowds, there are places, where, inexplicably, joy is celebrated. At this dark time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere) it can be therapeutic to spend some time celebrating happiness and sharing a bit of it.
Deborah Alecson alerted us to a remarkable photo essay on isolated peoples from the Omo river valley of Ethiopia. Les Tribus de le Omo. If you want better resolution photos, I can send you a PowerPoint that Deborah emailed me. (DJE)
The photos were taken by famed photographer Hans Silvester. The translation of the introductory text was done by a friend of Deborah's.
"Within the most remote part of Ethiopia, centuries from modernity, Hans Sylvester photographed for six years tribes where men, women, children and elders are true geniuses of ancestral art.
At their feet the Omo River across a triangle of Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya, the grand valley of the Rift that is slowly separating Africa. It is a volcanic region providing an immense palette of pigments, ocher-red, white kaolin, copper-green, luminous yellow and ash-grey.
They are painting geniuses and their six feet tall bodies are an immense canvas. The strength of their art can be defined in three words: their fingers, speed, and freedom. They draw with their open hands, their nails and fingertips, sometimes with a wooden stick, a reed, a smashed stalk. They draw with swift, rapid and spontaneous gestures beyond childlikeness, these essential movements that great contemporary masters are looking for when they have learned a lot and are trying to forget it all.
The Omo merely want to decorate themselves, to seduce, be beautiful, have fun and endless pleasure. All they have to do is plunge their fingers in the glaze and in two minutes nothing less than a Miro, Picasso, Pollock, Tapies, Klee appears on their chest, breasts, pubis and legs."
Your comments will be appreciated.
