Acadian Village--A Living Historical Museum

Canada. New Brunswick. Acadia. Caraquet. Village Acadien (Acadian Village). Reliving the past.

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Canada. New Brunswick. Acadia. Caraquet. Village acadien. Revivant le passé.

On the Way to a Party

Brazil. Amazon rain forest. Carrying bows and arrows, Yanomami Indians arrive at a manioc soup drinking party. They have stopped to wait for the women and children following behind before entering the host yano (communal house).

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Bresil. Foret amazonique. Munis d'arcs et de fleches, des indiens Yanamamis, invites par un clan voisin a partager une soupe de manioc, se sont arretes pour attendre femmes et enfants qui les suivent de loin. 

The Tuareg, Admirable Moslems, Grant Greater Rights to Women than to Men

Niger. Sahel near Tchin Tabaraden. Noble Iullimiden Tuareg nomads socializing. Contrary to other Moslems, and for belonging to a matriarchal society, the Tuarerg give women greater rights than to men. 

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Niger. Sahel pres de Tchin Tabaraden. Nobles Tuaregs Iullimiden conversant sous la tente de la fille du chef de tribu. Contrairement aux autres Musulmans, et pour appartenir a une societe matriarcale, les Touaregs reconnaissent plus de droits aux femmes qu'aux hommes. Et ce sont les hommes qui se voilent le visage, quoique pas pour raisons religieuses.

I Was once a Tuareg

To avoid distinguishing myself from my Tuareg friends on a 102-camel salt caravan across the Tenere, one of the Sahara's most dangerous regions, I wrapped my face up like theirs, though not all the way to the eyes. At age 30 I was reporting on the caravan on assignment for National Geographic.

 

A year earlier, over 30 days, I had ridden a camel with the Tuareg from Agadez, Niger, to Tamanrasset, Algeria. My story had made the cover of Venture magazine and led me to the National Geographic assignment. It also ended as a cover story and would be followed by many more adventure stories in that magazine.

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Pour eviter de me distinguer entre mes amis Tuareg au milieu d'une caravane de sel de 102 chameaux qu'a l'age de 30 ans je suivis durant pres d'un mois a travers le Tenere, l'une des regions les plus dangereuses du Sahara, je me suis fait habiller par eux.

 

L'annee precedente j'avais deja voyage a chameau un mois entre Agadez, au Niger, et Tamanrasset, en Algerie. Cela m'avait valu un reportage en couverture dans Venture magazine et un contrat de National Geographic pour cete nouvelle aventure, qui resulta en un nouvel article de couverture et bien d'autres aventures pour ce magazine.

 

Life in the Amazon

Brazil. Rio Negro at Manaus.Canoes bring plantain and bananas to land, where men carry them up to warehouses for sale at markets.

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Motherhood under a Leather Tent

Niger. Sahel. Tuareg nomad mother and baby boy sitting on the sand of their leather tent.

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Celebrating the Coronation of a New Zulu King

 On a 1957 Brussels-Cape Town Vespa scooter journey across the length of Africa, I took this picture of the celebration of a new Zulu chief near Durban, South Africa. I was trying to become a photojournalist  but failed in that first intent. One of the reasons was that tiny Belgium was not the right place for such a dream. To live the dream, for which I'll ever be grateful, I emigrated to the United States. 

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Adventures and Misadventures of a Would-be Explorer: Not your Every Day Pet

Adventures and Misadventures of a Would-be Explorer: Not your Every Day Pet: Niger. Sahara Desert. Little Tuareg nomad girl. Learn photography joining Victor on one of his (or your) journeys

Not your Every Day Pet

Niger. Sahara Desert. Little Tuareg nomad girl.

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Male Beauty Contest

Niger. Sahel. Standing in a moving row,  Wodaabe nomad men, including these two, are swaying more than dancing the gerewol while showing to a parallel row of women facing them the whiteness of their eyes and teeth. More than anything, the gerewol is a male beauty contest between clans. A few women, selected by the elders for their own beauty, are kneeling between the two rows of opposite genders. They will select the best looking men and take them to the bush. Folded on their heads are the blankets they will use to rest in pairs.

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Shared Sadness

Ecuador. Andes Mountains. Otavalo. Otavalo Indian waiting for a bus after buying a piglet at the market.

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A Whiff of the Traditional Colombian Countryside

Colombia. Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Pueblo Bello. Farmer.

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Morocco's Leapfrogging Berbers

Morocco. High Atlas Mountains. Ait Haddidu Berber girl leapfrogging.

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Legendary Africa

Benin. Near Boukombe. Somba women. Spears and fly chasers, male attributes, signal the new higher class of girls parading in their dikuntiri (initiation). Recognized as adults,  they may formally join the husbands to whom they were legally married  in childhood. They are crossing a harvested millet field under a sky whitened by the harmattan, a  sand-loaded wind blowing from the Sahara to the north.

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Look at the Yellow-haired, Blue-eyed Monkey. What Do you Think he is Doing, Looking at us through the Big Eye he is Holding to his Face?

Brazil. Amazon rain forest. Yanomami Indian boys. They decked their hair with bird's down. They colored their skins with urucu (achiote) and charcoal.

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The Strong Backs of the Weaker Sex

Colombia. Guajira Peninsula. Waiuu Indian woman carries 60 kilos of salt to a truck. It took two men to heave it on her back. Much heavy weight in the developing world is carried on women's backs. And are they strong! I once watched a woman in the Marquesas Islands lift a drunk men who was nagging me in her tiny restaurant, carry him to the street, and throw him out the door.

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Across Africa on a Vespa Scooter

Once, in a previous life, and as a first of many great adventures, I rode a Vespa 125cc from Brussels, my home town, to Cape Town through the length of Africa. Here I was, in this scratched image, struggling against the Sahara,  and later among the Pygmies of the Congo's Ituri forest.

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Sensual Desert Woman

Niger. Sahel. Tuareg woman sitting under her leather tent . Though Moslem, Tuareg Women like her enjoy freedom and rights that Western women could only envy.

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Bolivian Tin Miner Portrait

Bolivia. Potosi. Quechua Indian tin miner returning from work. His shovel hangs from the pick on his shoulder.

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Saddle-hardened, a Colombian Cowboy's Butt Finds Comfort Sitting on a Corral Fence's Picket

Colombia. Llanos Orientales. Resting from spending a day separating calves from cows and felling them to mark them in a sea of mud, a weary and muddied cowboy sits on a corral fence's picket, the only dry spot around. Colombian cowboys use no boots. They work and ride horses barefoot.

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Kuna Mother and Daughter

Colombia. Choco rain forest. Gulf of Uraba. Kuna Indian mother and daughter sitting inside their hut.

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Manicure al Fresco, a Woman at each Hand

Philippines. Negros Island. Bacolod. Manicurists attend customers in the town's central square. A man, elsewhere on the square, is doing someone's feet.

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Armed and Dangerous Colombian Cowboy

Colombia. Llanos Orientales. A revolver at his side and a cigarette in his right hand, a cowboy is selecting, among a herd of horses in a corral,  the four horses that he will exhaust, one after another,  in a day's work. 

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Fighting Cock Challenging Rival from a Safe Height

French Polynesia. Marquesas Archipelago. Hiva Oa Island. Fighting cock waiting  turn to fight battle to the death.

If You Can't Move A Sheep, Carry It.

Bolivia. Near Potosi. Quechua Indians carrying sheep to market.

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Mimiature Mother Substitutes of Benin

Benin. Yta Djebou (near Sakete). To help their mothers, little Yoruba girls are taking charge of their baby siblings.

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Red Sea Shark Fishing

Eritrea. Red Sea near Thio. Misty morning. Danakil fish sharks to export their fins to China via Aden (Yemen). This tiger shark, too big for that purpose, is being returned to the sea after the Danakil removed its liver for oiling their boat.

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Samburu Moran Playing the Flute

Kenya. Mathews Range. At sunset a Samburu moran found a quiet spot to be alone with his flute.

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