Jul 10
27

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa

5 Comments

  • ISBN13: 9780500288054
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Product Description
The scene of tribal conflicts and guerrilla incursions, Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is also home to fascinating rites and traditions that have survived for thousands of years. The nomadic people who inhabit the valley share a gift for body painting and elaborate adornments borrowed from nature, and Hans Silvester has captured the results in a series of photographs made over the course of numerous trips.
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Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa

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This entry was posted on July 27, 2010 at 1:48 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Fashion by admin 5 Comments

5 Responses to "Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa"

  • ChevalierMalFait says:
    July 27, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    I do not (yet) own this book, but I spent half an hour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop recently in an absolute trance paging through it. The sole review here trashing this beautiful book struck me as so unfair that I feel compelled to write a rebuttal.

    The reviewer is concerned that this collection of photographs does not represent the daily lives and cultural practices of the people it represents. That in fact the attention these people are getting from tourists and photographers is encouraging them to show off and thus changing their cultural practices from what they were in isolation. All that may be true. But none of it obscures or in any way detracts from the undeniable truth that these are some of the most beautiful, creative, and uniquely adorned people in the world. To page through this book is to be transported momentarily into a world of sensual beauty that few of us even dare to imagine exists. The viewer who is open minded enough to appreciate it is gifted with an insight into the beauty of a people he/she might not have known even existed. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.

    Does photographing these people and the attention that ensues change them? Probably. Is that a bad thing? I don’t know. But I do know it is up to the people being photographed to decide that. It is up to them to decide whether or not, and in what manner, they want to be photographed, not some outsider who believes their culture should be left intact. In a globalizing world, I can think of many types of attention from the outside world that would not be quite so benign. If it was done without compulsion, which appears to be the case, then I think that broadcasting the beauty of a people for the world to see is a good thing. Change is inevitable. Hopefully this sort of attention will help ensure that the change is positive.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • Noemi says:
    July 27, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    As a visual artist I can tell you that when I first picked this book up in my local library, the fantastic and surprising images nearly took my breath away!! I took it over to another artist’s house and we looked through it together. Deciding right then to get our own copies. The wild painting on the beautiful black skin is very similar to the free and easy strokes in my own paintings. I am considering getting the other African related book my the same author.

    Rating: 5 / 5

  • Lone Hansen says:
    July 27, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    This is an amazing book. I am a painter and it made me want to get in my studio and start paintings, the textures, the patterns and then now and then the sad contrast of weapons and Natures beauty, brings you right back to “real” world.I can’t stop looking at the pictures, they draw you in. It is truly a beautiful people. The first time I saw it ,was at a friends house and I just had to go get it for myself. My friend offered to loan it to me, but that just wasn’t enough. Thank you Hans Silvester for creating this book. Lone Hansen, Bainbridge Island , WA
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • K. Mcfarland says:
    July 27, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    I am an artist and this book has been such an inspiration to me. These people are absolutely beautiful, the photography is beautiful and it is all presented with elegance and simplicity. This books takes my breath away and I am mesmerized everyday when I open it’s pages.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • R. Nichol says:
    July 27, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    Beautiful imagery. It will have you near tears… One of my most precious finds in recent months…the faces, the creativity, raw natural talent. Unbelievable. A wonderful book to draw inspiration from.
    Rating: 5 / 5

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