Ethiopia - Part One "Did I do something wrong"?

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel to some wonderful locations on this planet. Generally my travel expense was covered as part of teaching or assisting. Ethiopia was one of the locations,where because of the pull of photographs taken by other photographers that I had seen, I was willing pay my own way. I thought that due to it’s remoteness, especially the region inhabited by the tribes of the Omo river valley in south eastern Ethiopia, it was still relatively untouched. Ok, i’ll say it right up front, I am naive. What I did find were tribes that have no control over their future and no Idea of the forces they are up against. I would guess that their number one source of income is probably photographers paying for a photograph.

We were lucky enough to be there when there was a bull jumping ceremony within a 5 or 6 hour drive.....which is about 100 kilometers, did I mention there are no roads? There were probably 6 other photographers/tourists at this event including Randy Olsen, National Geographic photographer and 2003 Magazine Photographer of the Year. While talking with him and discovering friends in common I learned he was doing a story on the Tribes in the Omo river valley. More specifically the story was about the Gibe 3 Dam that is currently being built on the upper Omo river and its impact on the many tribes that live down river. Included as part of this story was the impact of cultural tourism. So there I am photographing the tribes

and there is Randy photographing me (and others) photographing the tribes. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind that I was being photographed or even that there is a possibility that the photograph could be perceived negatively. However, I did not go there to do harm and all of the sudden I felt like I had.

I continued to photograph, my way, and tried to capture my surroundings with my aesthetic: intimate portraits and movement studies. I treated everyone with respect and tried my best to follow my 10 foot rule (which will have to be a topic for another post). I have attached some links if you are interested in reading more about the Omo river controversy. I do not know it the National Geographic story has been published yet, I am looking forward to reading it.

I am still unresolved on this. I love many of the photographs that I took but they did not come without a price.

International Rivers

Wildlife Direct