I'm going to admit, some of these I shot. This was the smoothest segue I've yet had to share my very favorite fashion photography in the whole world -- the mofos of the Omo River, described by German photographer Hans Silvester. Silvester spent six years in the area documenting what he said was completely unstaged but astoundingly complex body decoration, a tradition he said developed when his stylist paid the natural canvases in guns and alcohol because the locals had no mirrors so could only tell if the bird nest was on their head straight by the approval or mockery of their peers.
Unfortch, the people of the iPhone could not simply enjoy the enchanting result of Silvester + a boatload of ochre, regardless of how it came about. No.
Anthropologists are crying.
Range Rovers full of tourists descended on the remote area of Ethiopia waving money and video cameras, and the centuries-old tradition of enacting minutes-old colorful primitive rituals for money has been documented exhaustively. The very beautiful bending boughs of nature immediately exchanged the strange bits of paper and shiny metal for guns and alcohol.
Now I'm a little worried about the innocent natives whose image I captured, waving my camera and a piece of paper. They are gonna be so PO'd when they discover my business card cannot even buy them a Grain Belt.
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