Signed; Don McCullin - En Afrique - 2005

War photographer, Don McCullin revealed to the world the horror of combat, particularly that of Vietnam, with images of unbearable realism. Since 2003, he has undertaken several trips to Ethiopia, south of Addis Ababa, in the Omo Valley and up to the Sudan border where the Surma, Gheleb, Bume, Erbore, Bene, Bodi, Karo, Hamar and Mursi tribes live. Scarified, adorned with paintings, bedecked with jewelry, scarred 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 pierce the lobes of their ears. As an echo to this expression of the body, traditional in Black Africa, Kalashnikovs and other AK-47s evoke a very different violence—the violence of weapons. With great dignity and a kind 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 territories at the edges of civilization.