Biljana Jurukovski, Tribal Muses- The Avant Garde of the Tribal World (Portrait (2019))

People often will ask me questions such as "Are these people poor" and my answer always is: I did not go there ( Ethiopia) to search for poverty;poverty and wars have been well documented over the years,instead I went to see the beauty of the people and to bring it to you the viewer the beauty inspired by nature. My" Tribal Muses’ series is a collection of intimate portraits of the beautiful Surma tribal people.They were intentionally photographed against black backdrop, so the focus can be on the beauty and artistic skills. Surma tribe reside on the border between Ethiopia and South Sudan and one can claim that Surma are one of the most iconic tribes in Ethiopia. They still remain isolated, untouched by foreigners due to the location, lack of amenities and due to tribal conflicts. What makes them so iconic it is their imagination and artistic skills when it comes to beautification, decorating and being fashionable in their own way. Surma only use colours from crushed rocks to paint their bodies and faces and for hair decorations they use whatever they will find in the nature, such as branches, flowers and fruit. The other aim of photographing the Surma was with intention to present beauty in a very unique way and to encourage each of us to believe that there is nothing more beautiful than being unapologetically yourself.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.