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

Our faces: are they given, earned or do we just grow into them?

So my subject's face: was it a mask given her, did she earn it with her personality, or did she just grow into it? So how did she get her face?

Bume (sometimes called Nyangatom or Bumi) tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia, Africa.

While photographing the Bume tribe in the remote Omo region of Ethiopia, this one woman began shouting and making fun of me. 

In response, I pretended to threaten her in an exaggerated, humorous way. Others laughed at my dancing antics. Even my serious subject squeezed a pimple-sized smile from her face.

Bume (sometimes called Nyangatom or Bumi) tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia, Africa.

So how did my subject friend get her face?

All photographs and text © 2015 Janis Miglavs

www.jmiglavs.com

www.FiveFingersProject.org

janis@jmiglavs.com

China's toilet revolution

China’s tourism association has started a new campaign for travelers to the country’s most scenic spots. It's called the “toilet revolution.”

This toilet at a nice Deqin, Yunnan province, restaurant is actually not too bad by current standards. No distinctions made here between the men's and women's side. I'm not sure the significance of the different colors on the baskets. If you need to ask how the baskets are used, please email me privately. Peoples Republic of China

The first goal is making sure sufficient supply to meet demand.  

If visitors have to wait in lines, claim the Chinese tourist officials, it can try their patience and detract from their travel experience. The campaign goal is to make sure waiting times at the country’s top scenic attractions do not exceed 10 minutes.

To help shorten those trying lines, China will build 33-thousand new restrooms and renovate another 24-thousand around the country by the year 2017.

The doors are wide open to a public toilet in Fukang.  Asia, China, Xinjiang Province, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture.

To ensure compliance, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reports that over the next month, groups will conduct random inspections throughout the country. No mention of job qualifications for the inspectors.

   
Local governments are also getting involved.  Fortunately my favorite province, Yunnan, plans to spend about 10-million dollars over the next couple of years to build or upgrade 600 restrooms to what government officials call  “three-star rated.”

Personally, I am relieved at news of China's toilet revolution.

I wonder if this is part of China's "toilet revolution"? This was a prominent feature in the men's bathroom of the nicest hotel in ShangriLa, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China.

All photographs and text © 2015 Janis Miglavs

www.jmiglavs.com

janis@jmiglavs.com

Shopping with no Costco in Jinka, Ethiopia

Before heading out for a couple of weeks with Ethiopia's Mursi tribe in Mago National Park, my guide and I wanted to stock up. So we stopped in the tiny market town of Jinka, Ethiopia. Please note that Costco and Walmart have not yet arrived in Jinka, Ethiopia.

The main road through Jinka's shopping district.

Since Costco has not made it to Jinka yet, this is the general store. Jinka, Ethiopia, Africa

Here you can buy your tobacco, other smoking grasses and a few spices.

And if you need furniture, this is the place in Jinka, Ethiopia.

President Obama advertises an auto repair garage in Jinka, Ethiopia

On my way to revisit Ethiopia's Mursi tribe in Mago National Park, I found President Obama in the tiny market town of Jinka. Well, not actually the President, just his name and spirit. 

I found this sign outside a busy auto repair garage in the tiny Ethiopian road-junction town of Jinka. Ethiopia, Omo region, Africa.

Is there more than we can see in Haleakala?

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Author of The Little Prince)

A lone hiker stops to photograph the maturing volcanic landscape of Haleakala on the most remote major island group on earth. Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

Storm over the volcanic landscape of 10,000 foot high Haleakala. Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

Discover the real difference between a Mercedes and Chevrolet

At what age do we learn the difference between a Mercedes and Chevrolet car, between a Muslim and Christian person?

A young bare-bottomed Hamar boy leads the family cattle to the water hole. Hamar (Hamer) tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia, Africa.

 

The Ethiopian Mursi tribe turned their Botox equivalent into profit.

Tourists now flock to Ethiopia's Omo region to gawk at Mursi women with their clay lip plates. 

Originally created as a mark of beauty, now Ethiopia's Omo region Mursi women have turned their lip plates into a tourist attraction.  Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

Over the past 14 years I've traveled to the Omo, I've seen the Mursi turn their tortuous marks of beauty increasingly into Disney-like tourist attractions. "You, you, you. Photograph me." Now it costs 10 Birr a shutter click.

Watching the spectacle on my visit last January, I couldn't help but wonder how many of the camera-toting tourist's use Botox or other beauty treatments. 

It just seems to me that the Mursi have turned their Botox equivalent into profit.

Here a Mursi woman puts the finishing touches on a new clay lip disk.   Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

After shaping the clay disks, these Mursi women fire the plates in an open fire.  Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

  Since the Mursi have become such Disney-like tourist attractions, capturing casual relaxed photographs like these of women actually creating their lip disks would be very difficult. Today, it's like holding a greased pig at the state fair.  Now it is all about the money for each  shutter click.  Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

Besides the lip disks, Mursi women also pluck eye lashes to beautify themselves. On another note, when I took these photographs in 2001, it was my understanding that the women were not suppose to appear in front of foreigners without their disks inserted. Obviously, spending 5 weeks in the area made me less of a stranger.           Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

I can't imagine plucking my eye lashes.  And here you can clearly see what the stretched lip looks like without an inserted disk.    Ethiopia, Omo Valley, Mursi tribe, Africa.

All images copyright ©Janis Miglavs 2015

Is a heart attack an obstacle or part of life's pilgrimage?

In March I want to visit the Spanish-colonial-period-inspired vineyards of Bolivia. 

After I got excited, arranged my flights, a friend, who had lived in the landlocked South American country, mentioned a US State Department warning of high altitude dangers to unsuspecting heart attack victims. 

And Bolivia has oxygen-denying altitudes. Teetering on the Andes Mountain slopes, it houses our planet's highest cities and nose-bleed elevation vineyards.

But. Having already ventured on the myocardial infarction of the left anterior descending artery (translates to "widow maker"-sized heart attack) route, I took the warning to heart. 

I agonized for two or three weeks. Yes. No. Yes. Maybe. My adventurous spirit wrestled against my more practical part that wanted to stay alive.

During this time of indecision, I happened to be scanning film-day images captured in the remotest parts of Africa. They inspired me. They tipped my decision.

In remote tourist-free Okohimu village, Namibia, a Himba tribe woman paints my face with the same ochre mixture she uses to cover her own smooth body. I just wasn't sure if she was telling me that my wrinkled face looked old (the ochre paint somehow keeps the Himba women's skin youthfully wrinkle free in the harsh African sun) or that my tan wasn't up to par. Regardless, after the facial, I couldn't hold my camera to my painted face for two days.

Stay tuned to hear what happens in Bolivia.


What obstacles have you faced in your pilgrimage through life?



All images copyright ©Janis Miglavs 2014

How Satan created Ethiopia's Crater Lake.

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On the way back to Addis Ababa from Ethiopia's Omo region, I wanted to stop at a crater lake I had heard about. While it is suppose to be a tourist destination, we passed the small rusty directional sign along the road several times, before finding the correct little road to the lake.

This emerald-green lake is in a deep crater about the depth of a 35 story skyscraper from the crater edge. I have no idea how deep it might be and a local told me it is deadly to throw a rock into the lake.

This panoramic photograph makes the lake look so small. But, in fact, you could put a 35-story skyscraper on the water surface and it would barely reach the height of the rim.

Actually, the local man—who walked from his nearby field of maze—told me that this scenic crater lake is an evil place. In fact, the lake’s name, Ara Shetan literally means “Lake of Satan”. 
 

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Many years ago, it seems that an evil sorcerer, who had fought with local peasants, was finally mortally wounded. He fell at the exact spot of the lake. With his last bit of energy as he was dying, he drove his spear into the ground, yelling a curse something like “let this be the devil’s home.” Suddenly, the earth below the dying Satan imploded, swallowed him up and the hole filled with a greenish water.

"Be careful. Don't throw a rock into the lake," my self-appointed guide told me.  It seems that the lake’s Satan will hurl the rock back with incredible intensity, killing the stone thrower.  

While today's geologists might have a different explanation for the lake's formation—something about shifting faults causing the hole—I decided it prudent not to throw any rocks into the lake.

Tribal architecture in Ethiopia's remote Omo region.

A contrast in tribal and contemporary architecture: my little old-fashion backpacking tent amongst traditional houses in a Suri (Surma) tribe village, Omo region, Ethiopia, Africa. Architects tell me that the cylinder of these houses is the strongest shape for a building.

Numbering approximately 28,000, the Dorze tribe was once known as fierce warriors. Now they are most famous for weaving cotton  cloths and these beehive-shaped huts.

It just happened that the day I arrived at the Aerbore (also spelled Arbore and Erbore) tribe, an elder of the village was getting married. There was a serious men-only "bachelor party" inside this traditional family house, located in the southwest region of Ethiopia's Omo Valley.

Nyangatom, also known as Bumi or Bume (which I believe translates as "stinking or the smelly ones"), are agro-pastoralists, growing sorghum by the Omo and Kibish Rivers. Besides fishing and raising cattle, they also hunt in nearby Omo National Park. Every time I was in the region, I would constantly hear how they were at war with the Karo, Hamer (Hamar) and Suri (Surma).

The Galeb (Geleb or sometmes I've heard them called Daasanech) tribe are agro-pastoralists, who live in Ethiopia's Omo region just north of Kenya's Lake Turkana.

The Hamar (also spelled Hamer) is a large tribe living in a number villages in Ethiopia's Omo region. They construct their homes and storage cylindrical buildings out of wood.

The Karo tribe, numbering somewhere between 1000 to 3000—depending who supplies the population figures—farm using flood irrigation on the Omo River. The smaller structures in the photograph are for storage, raised to keep rodents out of the harvested sorghum, maize and beans. In the background are homes. Although I didn't see this, I'm told very Karo family owns two houses: the Ono, the principal living room of the family, and the Gappa (not sure about spelling), which is the center of several house hold activities. Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

Many Konso villages are fortified by a stone walls as a defensive measure.  This is Busso village, located on the edge of a hill.  In order to enter Busso, you must pass through a gate and a series of stone-lined alleys.  These paths are part of it's security system, keeping the village difficult to access. Konso tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia.

This is a view from my favorite Konso village, Busso, showing the steep hillside location with agricultural terraces on the opposite mountain. Busso village, Konso tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia.

The lip-plate (dhebi a tugoin) has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the Mursi and made them a prime attraction for tourists. - See more at: http://www.mursi.org/introducing-the-mursi/lip-plates#sthash.6aqp1ywk.dpuf

The lip-plate (dhebi a tugoin) has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the Mursi and made them a prime attraction for tourists. - See more at: http://www.mursi.org/introducing-the-mursi/lip-plates#sthash.6aqp1ywk.dpuf

These storage buildings belong to the Mursi tribe, probably best known for the women wearing clay lip plates. Belle Village, Mursi tribe, Mago National Park, Omo region, Ethiopia.

On our journey, must we carry our own beauty to find it?

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

I found this sunrise rainbow view of Napa Valley from Cain Vineyard and Winery, located in the Spring Mountain District above sleepy St. Helena.

If I might be so presumptuous, I concur with Emerson. We must carry our own beauty everyday. My deepest hope is to find the chance to share it.

These Konso tribe children came out to greet the camera-toting visitor to their village. But they wondered why I as an adult only spoke a few dozen words of Konso. I could only laugh with them at my ignorance and we got along anyway.  Busso Village, Omo region of Ethiopia, Africa.

 

 

Kunina holds a photo of his deceased father Kuyta Lamita, I took on an earlier trip. It was the only thing that he had to remember his father. That makes photograph beautiful for me.  Konso tribe in Busso village, Ethiopia.

 

After my heart attack I heed Helen Keller's advice

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Helen Keller

Especially, after my heart attack, I'm blessed and ready to face new dragons.
Janis Miglavs

Janis with chief of small village, Himba tribe near Epupa Falls, Namibia.

Are you too pulled by an inner sacred restlessness?

Entrance to ancient Roman Catholic Church in the tiny village of Cizhong, Yunnan province, China.

When people ask what draws me to places like remote African villages, tiny towns perched on Himalayan ledges or vineyards in dusty corners of China, I think of Siddhartha Gautama.

Siddhartha grew up sheltered behind walls of wealth and power. As a prince, he was shielded from any knowledge of  human suffering and religion.

But something happened at age 29. The Prince peeked over the garden walls of his compound to see the poor, the sick, the dying, all the human suffering outside of his walls; and he saw monks. He left to seek.

What was that restlessness that pulled Siddhartha away from a luxury life at home?   

Something about Tibetan Buddhism elicits a strong familiar attraction for me. Like a magnet, the Feilai Buddhist Temple, about 10 km from Deqen, pulled me in. Deqin County, Yunnan province, China.

 

A woman with her traditional apron spins the prayer wheels at the Feilai Tibetan Buddhist Temple near Deqen, Deqin County Yunnan province, China.

Likewise, I'm restless. Something seems hidden. I need to go out to find it.  My journeys too are born of an inner sacred restlessness.

The ancient Catholic church stands out in the tiny village of Cizhong, Yunnan province, China. And yes, those are Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the foreground.

Here I am searching for spiritual threads among the Mursi tribe in the Omo region of Ethiopia. Honestly, I don't see the big picture of why I'm there. I just trust, knowing prayer and meditation led me there.

On this journey, I look in every corner without prejudice or preconceptions. Sometimes when I tell Christian friends the kind of things I experience, they worry. Don't worry, Christ is still my guiding light. This is the most powerful Himba shaman (witch doctor) in the Epupa Falls area going into a trance in Namibia, Africa. He told me that I would find a secret.

Did I walk out of this Ethiopian village 60,000 years ago?

Sunrise on Busso village, Konso tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia.

On my first trip to the Omo region in Ethiopia, my guide, driver and I spent several days interviewing the Konso tribal elders for the First Stories Project. 

On the first morning in the area, I took an exploratory walk just before dawn. A couple of miles out, I saw the village of Busso.  Something made my heart sing. It was like a full-production Sound of Music moment.

Morning walks in the Konso area were pure magic.

I couldn't explain it. There were strong inklings like I've been here before. Was it in some ancient past life?
  
But there was something more. Was it the surrounding steep mountains that reminded me of the Himalayas I loved? Was it the wonderful sunrise light? Or did it just look like the picture-perfect African village I was hoping to see? 

A walking stick awaits the traveler at sunrise near Busso Village, Konso tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia.

 
Or, was I actually hearing some DNA-deep feeling that this was near the spot where we as modern man left to populate our planet? DNA tells us that some of us stayed, some of us walked out from Africa. Had I lived here some 60,000 years ago? 

Did I walk out to explore the world or stay?


Now 12 years later, I still can't really explain why my heart sang when I first saw Busso village in the Konso area. And it happens every time I revisit.

Even after many trips to Busso over the years, I still love wandering through the village.