The Masai of the Lerai village

The last day at the Ngorongoro Crater we spent it with the masai. We asked our guide Timothy to drive us to a remote masai village. The purpose was not only to photograph them in their daily life but also for me to try to work on a project that was long before in my mind. I wanted to make the portraits of every masai in the village and I wanted to have their names for their portraits too.

I was in my August Sanders mode  thinking a typological approach in my project. It was difficult in the first place to do something like that without any preparation.  Martin Schoeller had done a teriffic work shooting the Hadza tribe for the national geographic but it was a job on a much bigger logistic scale allowing him to carry crew and lights among others. I would love to do something similar but as I was driving down the only think I was thinking was if the masai would accept to let me take their photo in the first place.

When we arrive there i knew that i had to step out of my comfort zone and try to arrange and coordinate my project. The weather condition at the time was wind, dust and a drizzle that was not helping me. Timothy my guide help me by translating and explaining the plan to the masai.It was not an ordinary visit where i would snap some photos buy some gifts and leave. I wanted to spend time with them, photograph each one of them and then photograph their daily life. All of that in the dusty windy drizzly weather. And the only light I could use was the available light. The only thing that could take away the pressure was that National Geographic wasn’t expecting any photos from me.:)

The plan was simple. I was shooting, then saying the file number of the photo to Timothy ( he is on the right holding a pen and a notepad), and the people next to Timothy were saying him the name of the person I was shooting. Timothy was matching  file  numbers with names so I can identify them later.

The portraits are still on process but they will be completed soon. Here are two of them but the final version will be …a bit different

In between the portrait session and right after it, we were walking around meeting almost every people in the village.

Then, we visited the village school, we sat and shared a lesson with kids, we sang together with them. It was an overwhelming experience and joy that we all shared together.

The weather was changing rapidly from heavy clouds to sun. The only  thing wasn’t changing was the wind and the dust . Every 10 minutes we had a huge blowing wind that was lifting so much dust that it was impossible not only to shoot but simply to see.

The time was passing quickly and the light was fading away as the evening was approaching

At around 6.00 pm was time to start getting back. We had to drive more than one hour to go back to our lodge.

Visiting the masai, spending time with them was and always is a big highlight of our trips. The moments spent with these remarkable people will be moments cherished for ever.