Mursi girl with kalabas Photograph - Limited Edition of 10

The photo is a part of a art project called 'Vanity of Man' that I shoot i South West Ethiopia between 2003-2009. I was traveling to Ethiopia before that in 1999, to visit my father and his family and to do a reportage for a Travel Magazine in the north parts, when i came across information about these tribes in the south of the country. For me growing up in Sweden, Ethiopia was a country that you hear about on the news. Mostly about drought and starvation from the eastern parts that then had to represent the whole country. I came back there in 2003, 2006 and 2009. Each time around 4-5 weeks. So my inspiration was at the time the beauty and the pride these groups showed to me. And along the way i realized more and more how alike they were to us. When i have photographed these groups it has been in villages, at market, in the bush and on the side of the road. I have often been using a white backdrop to crop out the surroundings to really focus on the portrait and the details in it. I has been no change or styling of the people in the photos. I have been shooting with a 6x7 Pentax camera in Color an Black&White film, usually less then 10 frames per person. The prints are made on hi reflex color paper and black&white gelatine paper My take on this became to show something different and easy to embrace from these parts of the world. And to lift up the whole Ethiopian/African image. So i hope the viewer can see similarities to our own environment in these photos. The vanity, the tattoos, the time spent on hairstyles and so on.