Ethiopia: Danakil Council Under A Lava Rock

In Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, a small group of Danakil nomads holds a council under a rock. One of the men holds a goat by a rope.

     The Danakil Depression, part of the Great Rift Valley, is the world’s hottest region. It’s an inferno of active volcanoes, black lava fields as far as the eyes can see, vast salt lakes, and sulfur sources whose oxidation from yellow to green and brown are among this phenomenon’s few colors. And yet, it is of gripping beauty.

To view more Danakil photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Niger: Wodaabe Nomads’ Love For Their Cattle Is Reciprocated

The Wodaabe nomads of Niger’s Sahel treat and love their zebus like pets, giving each of them a name. They raise them for status, not for the butcher. Which is why this cow acts like a dog, licking its owner. Like dogs, too, Wodaabe zebus follow their owners on the march like children following a teacher. They cause no need to be prodded from behind.

To view more Wodaabe photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algeria: Biskra Street Scene

Algeria’s Biskra’s deep shade that hid me while I shot the 1969 picture of my last post allowed me this second shot.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algeria: Biskra's light And Shadow

Street scene in Algeria’s Biskra.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algeria: A Ghardaia Oasis Busy Street

While the Sahara Desert’s sun shines brightly outside, a street of Algeria’s Ghardaia Oasis is shaded by wide pieces of fabric stretching between walls. The blue sky bathes the street in its own color.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algerian Sahara: Irrigating A Palm Grove

 In Algeria’s Kerzaz Oasis, a Harratin man pulls water from a deep well with a bucket balanced by poles weighed down with stones at their ends. He pours the water into a metallic canal that irrigates the palm grove surrounding him.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algeria. Shawia Berber Courtyard in Aurès Mountains

A courtyard separates several Shawia Berber houses in Algeria’s Aurès Mountains, part of the Saharan Atlas.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Algeria: Magnificent Sahara

Ahaggar Mountains in Algeria’s Sahara Desert, the perfect region to find one's soul. Once, for a month, I explored it on a camel with a Tuareg companion.

To view more Algeria photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Chad: N’Djamena Bazaar

A 1973 photograph of N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. A man drops a coin in the hand of a seated beggar. Bazaar shops are shaded from the scorching sun by covered walkways.

To view more Chad photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Indonesia: Prambanan Hindu Temple At Dusk

The blue light of dusk bathes Prambanan, a ninth-century Hindu temple and UNESCO World Heritage Site near Jogjakarta, in Indonesia’s Java Island. A volcano looms in the distance.

To view more Indonesia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Indonesian Borneo: A Wet Village Along The Kapuas River

A mosque overlooks the village of Selimbau along the Kapuas River, in Indonesia’s Borneo, known as Kalimantan. There were no roads there, in 1968, only rivers and the surrounding leech-infested rain forest.

To view more Indonesia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Ghana: Ashanti Schoolchildren Praying Before Classes

In Adukrom, near Kumasi, Ghana, Ashanti children, most of them in brown and yellow uniforms, pray before entering classes. Some of them are holding pencils.

To view more Ghana photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Ghana: Girls Carrying Own Chairs To School

Many years ago, when I shot this picture in Adukrom, an Ashanti village near Kumasi, the local school’s classes had benches but no chairs. Each morning, soon after dawn, children in school uniforms carried their own chairs to school on their heads. A boy in the background is taking a bucket shower. Outside school, a woman sold the kids breakfast at a price the kids’ parents could afford. 

To view more Ghana photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Ghana: Ashanti Family Walking To Its Field

After school, an Ashanti family is on its way to weed a corn field near Adukrom, a village near Kumasi. The father carries a shotgun in case he finds a bird or a small rodent to shoot for the pot. The basket on one of the girl’s head holds machetes.

To view more Ghana photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Ecuador: Herding Sheep From A Horse

Fourteen-year-old cowgirl moving sheep on her family’s hacienda near the small town of Salitre, in Ecuador’s Guayas Province. When the rainy season will start, with torrents cascading down the Andes Mountains, these lowlands will disappear under deep water. Moving around will then need the canoe sitting at the foot of the corral fence.

To view more Ecuador photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Ecuador: Where Soccer Is Played Even In The Jungle

In a clearing of Ecuador’s coastal rain forest, Awa Indians play soccer (football) in a warm downpour. Mud there is a way of life.

To view more Ecuador photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Colombia: Cali Street Scene

I photographed this scene in Cali, Colombia, in the early nineties. Some of the city’s avenues closed to traffic on weekends to give families and individuals safe space to walk, cycle, or skate. The unicyclist was listening to his radio.

To view more Colombia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Canada: New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy

 New Brunswick's spectacular Bay of Fundy boasts the world’s highest tides, averaging heights of 47 to 54 feet. People kayak around the rocks at high tide and walk around them at low tide. I got there late, as guards started to drive visitors away. Unfortunately my schedule did not allow me to return at high tide. The sea looked reddish from the sediments it was dragging back and forth.

 To view more Canada photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Colombia: Educating Disadvantaged Kids

Leaving home for school and a better future.

In the eighties, Russell Bloom, an American friend of mine, helped create a little school for children of a poor barrio in Cali, Colombia, and invited me to see it at work. It was heartwarming to watch how caring the teachers were, and how happy and eager to learn the young students were.                     
                                                                             

     Russell went on to devote himself to help Vietnamese boat people settle in the United States before he died, still young, of a rare illness. He left his fortune to a Cali shoeshine boy he had adopted and educated.

     In my January 17 post I showed how the day at the school started with a shower—cold but welcome in a 27 Celsius temperature. Toothpaste distribution and teeth brushing followed. Then some gym before sitting at some exciting classes.

At Christmas the kids reenacted the birth of Jesus. The little girl who brought her baby brother to play Jesus got the role of the Virgin Mary.

Colombia: The Thrill Of A Cold Shower

In a poor section of Cali, Colombia, these little girls burn with excitement in anticipation of taking their turn under their school’s cold shower before classes.

To view more Colombia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Colombia: Culling Grapes

Young women culling grapes in Casa Grajales near La Unión, a small town in Colombia’s Cauca Valley Department. The good grapes will be sold as fruits, while those removed will be pressed and turned into wine.

 To view more Colombia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Colombia: Picking Cotton

Woman picking cotton under a heavy sun near Palmira, in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.

To view more Colombia photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Peru Upper Amazon Region: More pre-Inca Chachapoya Ruins

My last post showed a few pictures of Chachapoya stone ruins which, in 2007, when I photographed them, had just been discovered by settlers. Buried under the moss of the cloud forest, they were difficult to distinguish from the surrounding vegetation.

     However, Chachapoya ruins, like the Kuelap citadel, have been known to exist for more than a century. Over the years many have been cleared from the surrounding vegetation to give travelers easier access to them. And though what pushed me to return to Chachapoya country was the news of the  new discovery, I also photographed several of the more accessible ones, as shown hereafter.

 

Pre-Inca Chachapoya sarcophagi (mummy casings) looking towards the rising sun on a cliff ledge of the Andes Mountains’ eastern face at the Karija site.  There is no way to photograph them from the front.

Chachapoya cliff mausolea at site known as Revash.

Chachapoya cliff mausolea at site known as Revash.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya ruin near Leimebamba known as El Molinete

Chachapoya ruin near Leimebamba known as El Molinete..

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. Its protective wall rises at places to more than 30 feet. Llamas browsing.

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. Its protective wall rises at places to more than 30 feet. Llamas browsing.

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. The snake was one of four Chachapoya deities.

 I photographed this Chachapoya stone engraving at a hotel. The owner could not tell where it came from. The puma that it represents was another of four Chachapoya deities.

Leymebamba (Amazonas). Museum. Casing of a Chachapoya mummy  inside a glass display.

 Chachapoya bones rolled up like firewood. Was displayed at the Leimebamba Museum.