The Omo Valley's Surma + Mursi Tribes, Vintage 2008, In Hans Silvester's Own Words

The Omo Valley's Surma + Mursi Tribes, Vintage 2008, In Hans Silvester's Own Words

As a design person, no book has influenced me more in life than Hans Silvester’s 2008 book ‘Natural Fashion, Tribal Decoration from Africa.’ His images of members of the Surma and Mursi tribes, the product of 12 trips into the isolated Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia, have become legendary.

Many of the people commenting on on the Silvester images don’t own the book and have not seen them in art galleries. I fear that much of their original meaning and importance is being lost in the muck, so to speak. For this reason, I want to attach Hans Silvester’s own words to the images, and this is my first effort. ~ Anne