Ben Wilhelmi

Aerials, Tanzania

 

Local celeb’: volcano Lengai, an active one.

 

 

Tanzanian air force in Mwanza, some of the Mig 21s (Chinese license, and renamed F 7 Chengdu)

 

 

 

 

Kenya, road side scenes

 

I rarely miss a chance to snap away while travelling…life is never boring on African roads.

notice the chickens.

 

“Wonderful Food Store”! No less….

 

 

 

 

 

is it really wise to nail an ad about a villa with internet and various facilities next to a shoddy stall?

 

The middle class is blossoming in Africa. So are rich people….

 

But poverty still has a future…

portraits on film, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures shot on films and with a Nikon F3

street photography in Arusha

 

 

 

Obviously this guy didn’t want his picture taken. But his sense of fashion made me click the shutter button nevertheless.

 

 

Getting rarer every year, a venerable Peugeot 504.

 

 

 

Unusual sighting…

 

Motorbike taxi rider sleeping while waiting for business

 

 

people in the bush, Tanzania

 

A happy freshly circumcised Maasai girl, she is still in the healing process. Black dress and forehead jewels are typical for this brief status.

I know this kind of mutilation horrifies Westerners, me included, I don’t like broken toys , but the fight is not easy nor obvious. Maasai girls are ready for this ceremony like some white girls dream of their virginal wedding dress… how to fight this is open…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Maasai lady bows to an elder who in turn pats her head, a typical Maasai way to show respect.

 

 

old cars on the road, Route 66

 

We didn’t stay in that motel but the paintings were cool.

 

various sad wrecks on Route 66…

 

 

 

 

Luckily once in a while…here a restored Corvette.

Scenes in the bush, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, wildlife in B/W

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, scenes in a village

 

 

No fear no shame! “VIP”….

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, B/W portraits

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, aerial photography

 

 

 

 

 

Wildlife in B/W

 

 

 

 

 

street photography, Paris in B/W

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leica M6, Ilford Delta films

B/W aerial photography, lake Natron

 

Lake Natron, Rift valley, the active volcano Lengai sits to the south.

 

 

Vertical view of a delta.

 

aerial photography, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

aerial photography, Tanzania

 

 

 

The Ngorongoro Highlands…any direction is good to approach this vast expanse of mountains, depressions and gullies.

 

 

Cologne, street photography, 80's

 

 

 

 

 

Gay Pride, Belgium

 

 

 

Ecolo is the green party. “Pédale” is either a bike pedal, to pedal or a nickname for male gays. So Ecolo here showed its support by “pedaling for you”

 

 

YMCA style doesn’t go out of fashion.

 

 

Leica M6

Burma, various religious sites

 

This reclining Buddha is one of the largest in Asia. 65x16m, quite impressive. The hangar was specially made to house it.

Many donation boxes lie around the statue. Why so many, I don’t know.

 

 

 

 

 

outreach clinics in the Tanzanian bush, Flying Medical Service

 

Flying Medical Service  operates on about 26 remote villages. Here is our doctor of the day treating a kid’s wound.

 

A nurse busy with vaccination cards and syringes.

 

Monik, an airstrip on lake Natron. Extinct volcano Shombole above and active volcano Lengai below

 

A one-legged man goes home after a treatment on his stump.

 

Bush airstrips show challenges sometimes minor, sometimes serious. Slopes, altitude, difficult terrain and surroundings, flash floods…

Aerials, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stonetown, street photography

 

 

 

Zanzibar has an independence wish for Tanzanian mainland. people here don’t seem to realise that without the mainland money and subsidies, they’d go bankrupt…

 

Freddie Mercury, the only Zanzibari celeb’ and people are not even proud. Homophobia is rampant here… his flamboyant lifestyle was anyway billion miles away for the traditional Muslim way of life.

 

Fashion contrast.

 

That venerable Austin is still going in that humid and salty environment!

B/W scenes in the bush, Tanzanie