2005 Photo Contest, Portraits, 3rd prize
Photographer

Isabel Muñoz

Agence Vu for El Pais Semanal

01 May, 2004

The Suri are a semi-nomadic people who live in a mountainous region of Ethiopia, near the Sudan border. The men generally go naked, and both sexes shave their heads -sometimes leaving patterned strips of hair- and decorate their bodies. The Suri cover their skin with chalk and make designs with their fingernails, or paint on their bodies using sticks and colored vegetable pigments. The body art is a means of aesthetic expression, but is also important in attracting the opposite sex and intimidating opponents.

About the photographer

Isabel Muñoz

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