Niger: Camel-Riding Blue Man Of The Sahara

I photographed this Tuareg man of the noble Kel Rela tribe near the Sahara’s well of In Abbangarit in Niger. Though he was holding a leather whip, he rarely used it.

Tribesmen in Arabia and other parts of the Sahara saddle their camels over or behind the humps, legs dangling on each sides, which leaves them little control over the animals other than through whips.

The Tuareg saddle their camels in front of the humps. This allows them to rest naked feet on their camels’ necks. To make camels kneel down they only need to apply repeated downward pressure on the camels’ necks. To accelerate the pace of camels into a gallop they only need to apply repeated forward pressure to the camels’ necks. Such control helps the Tuareg to be the world’s best camel riders.

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Sahara: Nap In A Tuareg Tent

Having spent the night far from his family’s tents, watching over his camels, this noble Taitoq Tuareg man of Niger’s Sahara Desert brought the animals back next morning to be milked. While he is resting, two of the family’s boys keep an eye on the camels browsing at some distance. Later that day, the man will take the camels back to the better pasture until the following morning again.

All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization. 

Kenya: Sunrise On A Samburu Zebu Herd Being Moved To Pasture

Sunrise in Kenya’s Mathews Range is seeing a Samburu elder and two members of his family driving their zebu cows to pasture after milking them. The milk was all they had for breakfast.

I spent eight days walking with three Samburu men and three pack camels to photograph the Samburu.

  All the photographs of this blog are copyrighted.

No usage permitted without prior authorization.

Kenya: Samburu Portrait

Semi-nomadic Samburu woman of Kenya’s Mathews Range

Kenya: Goat Milking In A Samburu Camp

In northern Kenya’s Mathews Range, also known as the Lenkiyo Hills, a little Samburu girl is feeding a baby goat some leftover milk after its mother has been milked. The girl’s mother is holding the last of the jugs she filled with her goats’ milk. Milk is all her family has for breakfast every day.

I walked eight days around the range, photographing the people along the way, using three Samburu men and three pack camels. 

Bali: Graceful Sailing Boats

Sailing boats ferrying people between Bali, Indonesia, and a smaller island.

Bali: A Smile In The Crowd

In Bali, an Indonesian Island, my clicking camera brought a brief smile to the face of a woman who, with others, was watching the passage of a funeral procession. Most women lining the street were carrying on their heads offerings they would display on a large makeshift table outside a Balinese Hindu temple. The old lady in her coffin would be cremated there and quite joyously dispatched to a better world.

Niger: Wodaabe Friends

This Wodaabe nomad man of Niger’s Sahel is watching other men dance the Gerewol, which doubles as an annual male beauty contest between clans. It takes place during the few weeks of rain that provide enough pasture and water for those people’s zebus to allow the tribe to stay together at one place for a while.

    

The way he and a friend lean on each other does not connote homosexuality and is common among Wodaabe men and women.

Ghana: Inseparable Little Girl Friends

Last month, Highlights for Children magazine published my story of two inseparable nine-year-old Ashanti girls of Ghana. This picture, which ended Becky-and-Bonsa’s story, shows them going for a walk at day’s end, still full of things to tell each other before going to bed. I photographed them in Adukrom, a big village of wonderful cocoa-growing people surrounded by tall and thick rain forest near Kumasi. The girls’ story is being offered to children’s book publishers.

Brazil: Street Capoeira

I photographed the following scene in Salvador, Brazil, in 1971. Supported by two musicians, a man challenged spectators to face him in a bout of capoeira, a form of Brazilian martial art, for a prize. A valiant teenager did, but was not long in biting the dust, and the coins that fell in the ring went to the man.