Ben Wilhelmi

B/W portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

sepia portraits, Tanzania

 

 

 

Mang'ati or Barabaig woman. A sub clan of the larger Masai tribe. Only these spiral-shaped jewels are on display, also around the arms and legs. Notice the exclusive scars around the eyes. Sometimes on elder women, a similar dotted scar will run from the forehead to the chin.

 

 

 

Tanzania, portraits in the bush

 

Mang'ati, Barabaig, Masai, Sonjo... many tribes in Tanzania. Here are some portraits from northern Tanzania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

portraits in sepia, the bush in Tanzania

 Northern Tanzania near the Rift valley...

A Sonjo woman.

 

A Masai woman.

 

Freshly circumcised Masai boys and girl.

Mang'ati woman, that is a cousin sub Masai clan.

 

Another Sonjo woman.

sepia portraits in the Tanzanian bush

 

when I don’t have to help the medical staff nor fix something on the aircraft or the airstrip, I do some pictures. Lately I’ve introduced that studio look to the portraits. I was a bit anxious people might not be used to this white background but when I brought the prints (still in colors though) 2 weeks later they seemed utterly happy, so did I. They kept on asking for more anyway…Maybe I’ll bring some B/W or sepia prints next time and see. I’d love to bring an enlargement but that would create jealousy…

 

This Masai warrior was a bit of an exception: he insisted to keep his umbrella for the shoot…

 

in the bush, Tanzania, B/W portraits

 

 

Tour of duty with Flying Medical Service, people in the bush

 

I just came back yesterday from a tour of mobile clinics with Flying Medical Service. I flew to Loliondo area, that is northern Serengeti, then lake Natron and the Gol mountains. In Tanzania that is. Weather was mostly bad, we’re in the middle of the rain season, and thus I couldn’t land on 3 airstrips. One was quite flooded, another one was damaged by trenches made by flowing waters, and the 3rd one located on top of a cliff was shrouded in clouds. So badly that even flying alongside the cliff I couldn’t find a hole in the clouds  to crawl up. The cloud ceiling was at 4000 feet against the cliff…and the strip is still 2000 feet higher in the mountain.

In the Sonjo Valley, there is a village I particularly like for various reasons, one being that 3 tribes live together there, more or less peacefully. Women seem to go by much better than men, the latter still tend to fight each other, with Kalashnikovs even sometimes. Every year we get emergencies with bullet wounds…

A Sonjo woman with a typical Tanzanian-flag necklace.

 

 

 

a Mangati woman, with a typical spiraled necklace.

 

an elder Mangati lady, with scarification marks around the eyes. Younger people seem to drop that traditional feat.

 

 

and some Masai women fully equipped.

Anyway, these women like their pictures to be taken and they trust me that I’ll bring prints later. This time one model was a bit shocked that I also wanted a picture of her alone, without her baby. Shocking indeed! Many women would rather have their babies pictured rather than themselves. It must be said that in remote areas women have only one right: produce and raise children (preferably males). So being childless is a social stigma, disaster. And so denying that role by requesting a picture without the baby must be seen as slightly insulting?

I also got some nice shooting with the Sonjo kids playing with an old bicycle rim. Sonjo kids still dress very often in these bright colorful pieces of cloth, the same 4 colors for the 13 years I have been flying out there. No red, no purple, no black, no white… nope just these yellow, light blue and orange colors. And green but not on this picture.

B/W portraits, Tanzanian bush

 

some colorful portraits, Tanzania