Halim Ina, Global Community Portraits, Cleveland Print Room, Humana People to People India, July 12, 2013

Esther, Dorze Community, Ethiopia

She was the very first girl photographed in Ethiopia, and belongs to an incredible community. They are well-known as cotton weavers, and famous for their beehive huts. They cultivate their own food and use terracing to prevent erosion on hillsides. The night before this portrait was spent in one of their huts, made of hard wood poles, woven bamboo and other natural materials. When we woke up in the morning we started out of the compound and made our way to the right down a natural path. We then spotted Esther to the left in front of her home, helping her mother with chores. She recognized us from the previous evening and smiled, also allowing me to make her portrait once again. This is that second portrait.

Unframed $250
Framed $400
Smaller Prints Available
100% of proceeds going to Schools for Girls in association with
Humana People to People India

Teenager, Dorze Community, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, March, 2010

She can be from anywhere, yet she is from Ethiopia. She seems out of place here, yet she is from the Lower Omo Valley. Her features are universal, yet she is from Africa. She embraces all of the above and is limited by none of the above at the same time. She is a stranger to me yet she smiles as if she has known me in another life.

She photographs in one outfit and then changes into another for her second portrait an hour later.

In both instances she is perfect, listens to our requests and translates them into movements and expressions, all with ease and kindness. We ask her to look right, to look left, to raise her head, to smile and in every single instance she bends to our requests while retaining her spirit, her beauty, her strength and her fragility.

While everyone around us watches, they see another side of the girl familiar to them. She shows them as well as us who she really is, who she wants to be. We finish the photography on top of a hill and head down to rest in a local lodge.

Everyone follows us and we exchange words in the courtyard. The feeling is friendly, the mood kind. They hear my words through an interpreter; they hear that they are part of my photographic family now, that their brothers and sisters from around the world will see their faces, will hear their stories.

Few want to leave but need to do so as the sun is setting. We go to sleep rested and wake up the next day to photograph the same faces before moving onto the next community.

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Dorze Girl, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, February 1, 2010

As Esther's portrait is being made, she walks from our right and stands and watches, smiling as Esther smiles and laughing as Esther laughs. She is a natural.

 

The Dorze Community is open to our work, patient with the process. To our left, the adults sit around and watch the photography, waiting for us to select from them. Since there are so many, some are only meant to watch rather than be photographed. Regardless, they sit and watch.

So it is her turn to be photographed, the young Dorze girl with the natural smile. She is photographed twice, once as she arrives and once after switching shirts with her sister. The above portrait is a still from the video sequence, on her second portrait series.

She follows our instructions beautifully, stands tall and with her face to the sun. She is serious at times; she smiles at a whim, her laugh infectious. We make portraits until the sun goes down behind a tree; then move to a different spot, until the sun goes down for the last time on this beautiful afternoon.

Everyone follows us down the hill and into the village, exchanging their portraits for a small fee, helping their community to thrive by sharing their culture with us. With smiles we say goodnight to each other, until the morning when we make portraits once again before moving on, with her smile on my mind.

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