Signed; Don McCullin - En Afrique - 2005

War photographer Don McCullin revealed to the world the horror of combat, and especially those of Vietnam, with images of unbearable realism. Since 2003, he has made several trips to Ethiopia, south of Addis Ababa, in the Omo Valley and up to the Sudanese border where the Surma, Gheleb, Bume, Erbore, Bene, Bodi, Karo, Hamar and Mursi tribes live. Scarified, adorned with paintings, bedecked with jewelry, mutilated and sometimes deformed, the body is at the center of numerous rituals. Among the Mursi, large clay plates stretch their lower lips and gaping holes open the earlobes. As an echo to this expression of the body, traditional in sub-Saharan Africa, Kalashnikovs and other AK-47s evoke a very different violence, that of weapons. With great dignity and endowed with a form of heroism, the men and women photographed by McCullin fascinate with their strength and beauty. While revealing the vulnerability of these tribes, this book penetrates into territories at the edge of civilization.