Which of my submissions for the new Family of Man project work for you?

Here's my submission for the new Family of Man project photographs. 

In 1939 Edward Steichen curated a show called the Family of Man for New York City's Museum of Modern Art. He asked 30 photographers, including Cartier Bresson, Eugene Smith, and Dorothea Lange, to document the common links of humanity worldwide. 

Family of Man became the biggest-selling photography book in the history of photography. 

So this year an outfit called IPA (not the beer but the International Photography Awards) takes inspiration from the Family of Man Project, to document parallel circumstances in the world today. 

The categories are Birth, Childhood, Youth, Love, Marriage and Old Age. I submitted the following photographs:

Which ones work for you?

Childhood: Children at the Gate.    These Konso children came out to greet me; then proceeded to give me a hard time because I was an adult and only knew a few words of Konso.  Konso tribe, Buso village, Edge of the Omo region, Ethiopia, Africa.

Childhood: Growing up with Booze.   A drunken Himba mother in traditional clothes allows her child to play with the booze bottle she just finished drinking at the open market in the frontier town of Opuo, Namibia. Himba tribe, Namibia, Africa.

Youth: A Himba tribe girl (already married as seen by the head gear) reacts at seeing herself in a photograph for the first time in her life. I think I've seen this same look on girls in Portland area malls. Himba tribe, Namibia, Africa.

Youth:  As part of their tribal initiation into manhood, these 12 and 13-year-old Bedik boys run all day for one month through their village of Iwol. Then they will spend 5 months living in the "bush" by themselves. Tribal chief Keita told me the initiation is for the boys to "learn the secrets of life." Please sign me up.   Bedik tribe, Senegal, sub Saharan Africa; West Africa, Africa.

Old Age:  Old lady with her grandson in the Bedik tribe village of Iwol.  Senegal, sub Saharan Africa; West Africa, Africa, 

Old Age: On my first trip to the Bedik tribe in remote corner of Senegal, the Chief's mother wore traditional clothes. Three years later on my second trip to the Bedik, she still had the porcupine quill in her nose but was wearing an elaborate hand-me-down European style outfie. Bedik tribe, Senegal, sub Saharan Africa; West Africa, Africa. 

All photographs and text © 2016 Janis Miglavs

www.jmiglavs.com

www.FiveFingersProject.org

janis@jmiglavs.com