Painting With Photographs In Ethiopia

Presenting a group of photographs from Ethiopia that act more like paintings.

Bar.

Hotel room.

Restaurant.

Hotel room.

Office.

Church Interior.

The Details Of Ethiopia

You can tell a bit about a country and its culture by the little things. Architectural details, utility designs, small touches that let you know you're nowhere else, but Ethiopia.

Bright hut in the hills.

Post box and blanket hanging on a line, Bahirdar.

The Mona Lisa, adapted for the lobby of a hotel in Axum.

Tin utility shack in Axum and the rest/break place for a guard at the entrance to one of the churches in Lalibela.

Plant protection, Gondar.

The Kids Of Ethiopia

Adorable at any age, any location, the kids of Ethiopia are great sitters (standers?) for their portrait. Take a look.

Girl lounging on bags in a market stall.

Children as workers. Hauling eucalyptus branches and making crafts at a roadside stand.

Going for water.

Baby in a store. Kids in a rural village.

Outside a school.

Hilltop view. Kids and concrete mixer.

Along a rural road.

Into The Wilds Of Ethiopia

Rhinos roaming the cities. Elephants everywhere. Ethiopia has all the safari highlights, right? Not quite. There's a fair number of exotic birds and larger animals about, but the country isn't known for a plethora or unique species. But the illusion can be found.

Leopards exist, though hard to, um, spot. Unless you're in a National Park office. And ready to make some deals!

Who is this gremlin? Turns out there are plenty of these gremlins roaming about, concentrated in the Simien Mountain National Park. Looks like a baboon, classified as a monkey. Likes to travel in packs that top 1,000.

Tired donkey, trying to hide in the shade along a wall.

Addis museum lion. Airport wooden rhino.

Another leopard sighting, as an introduction at a museum in Axum.

Christian Lessons In Ethiopia

One interesting room at the Ethnological museum in Addis is full of old religious paintings. Instead of a big painting of Jesus or Mary or some bucolic scene, most of the works are long, multi-scene narratives of religious lessons. James was told the paintings would be used for teaching the populace about Christianity and that pictures were used in order to get the message through to a largely illiterate society.

One message is loud and clear: Don't believe and you will pay the price. And precious little is left to the imagination about what wrath awaits you.

One consequence for not believing? You might get sawed in half.

Other options? Plenty. How about being stuck in a barrel or having your head sliced off? Maybe boiled in a pot?

An angel may look down upon a beheading, making sure the head lands in a basket OK.

More chopping. Why stop at the head? It gets grizzlier, someone strapped to a spiked wheel. Ouch.

How about a pot strapped to your head?

Spike through the center of your body, through the groin first. Does it really matter? Grilled to death.

Double scene: stoning and tongue being cut out. I believe now!

Six Fiat Trucks In Ethiopia

With primary colors for their cabs, these Fiat trucks look like Lifesavers come to life.

Hanging Out In Ethiopia

Outside the capital of Addis Ababa, you don't find many private cars. Tuk tuks, buses, carts, the usual developing world transportation options. And then there are your feet. There's no shortage of people out and about in Ethiopia.

School kid.

Two road construction laborers. Young man.

Group of kids.

Resort guards at sunrise. Kid in front yard.

Man with sheep.