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  • This is the small chapel adjacent to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. It is said to house the Ark of the Covenant and therefore The Ten Commandments inside. Of course, only a ‘guardian’ is allowed access beyond the fencing immediately surrounding the chapel. I, as a foreigner was only allowed to get as close as this photograph indicates. That was plenty close for me as it allowed me to shoot not only the chapel, but the revelers in front of it all bathed in beautiful golden hour light. Besides, who wants to risk getting their face melted off like a Nazi in Raiders of the lost Ark? The Legend is that Menelik, the son of King Solomon and a beautiful African Queen from Axum named Makeda (Queen of Sheba), brought it back to his homeland of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
    20141004-Ethiopia-Aksum-175.jpg
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  • Unlike hijabs (head and/or neck scarves worn by muslim women) in Middle-Eastern countries, the women in this tiny muslim enclave in Ethiopia wear vibrant colors just like their non-muslim counterparts across the continent.
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  • Mikael Cemetery is just outside of town on an adjacent hillside and below the Christian church of the same name. Ironically, unlike the ancient town it serves, the cemetery has no walls or gates. Therefore, you can expect locals to be not only paying their respects, but also grazing their cattle. <br />
On the hillside in the background you can the ancient walled city of Harar, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2006.
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  • I saw this girl sitting on the giant roots of this old tree and how her bright yellow hijab leaped out of the background. What’s more, it was the perfect complimentary color to the traditional green stove along the wall behind her. After some initial reluctance, she finally decided to let me make a portrait of her and her favorite place.
    20141001-Ethiopia-Harar-22.jpg
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  • Like clockwork, the old city springs to life everyday at 3:00 when schoolchildren come pouring back in through Buda Gate.
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  • One of Harar’s ubiquitous ‘wall side’ markets starts to buzz in the warm light of golden hour.
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  • “wildflowers recently blanketed the hillsides like a patchwork blanket of green and gold with purple highlights that had simple been tossed over a lumpy old sofa.”
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  • This perspective from atop Church of St. George really imagine what it really took to slowly create this intricate monolith of a church out of this solid stone outcropping.
    20141009-Ethiopia-Lalibela-38.tif
  • 20141005-Ethiopia-Gonder-40.tif
  • A worshipper leans on his cane in a moment of deep reflection.
    20141009-Ethiopia-Lalibela-181.tif
  • Best known of Lalibela’s rock hewn churches, Church of St. George is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has often been called the Eighth Wonder of the World. I feel like there’s probably 100 “Eighth Wonders of the World” but this church definitely qualifies. It was carved downward through the hard volcanic tuff before chiseling out the inside. It’s such a mind-numbing feat, the locals claim all eleven of Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches were carved by angels at night while the real workers were sleeping. Whether people 800-years-ago carved out this church with rudimentary tools or they had the power to summon angels to do the work, either way it’s a miraculous achievement.
    20141009-Ethiopia-Lalibela-123.tif
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  • “The gelada, sometimes called a ‘bleeding heart baboon’, is a species of Old World monkey found only in the Ethiopian Highlands, living at elevations of 1,800–4,400 m above sea level.” -Wikepidia<br />
Apparently they like to keep a 300mm lens distance away from humans.
    20141006-Ethiopia-SimienMountains-49.tif
  • The “chira” (fly swatter) is made of horsehair and has been the most immediately recognizable part of the Christian Ethiopian Empire’s regalia for centuries.
    20141004-Ethiopia-Aksum-208.jpg
  • ... Finally, they stopped and grazed on a steep hillside leading down to the rim of the immense green gorge. Thinking it was my last best chance, I crept closer as slowly as I could. Every 4 or 5 paces, the gelatos would simply get up and move equal distance, sit back down and start grazing again. Just as I was developing my theory that gelatas (Bleeding Heart Baboons) seem to have developed a sense of exactly the perfect range from a 70-200mm lens so as to continually entice hope, yet never give you the money shot, this local girl saved my morning session. She caught my eye frolicking through a patch of wildflowers that recently blanketed the hillsides like a patchwork blanket of green and gold with purple highlights that had simple been tossed over a lumpy old sofa.<br />
At first, I was shocked at her apparent immunity to the grandeur of the scene. I guess it’s human nature to place value on things we see as rare or fleeting and take for granted. To this day, she serves as a reminder to me to always treat life like wildflowers, rare and fleeting!
    20141006-Ethiopia-SimienMountains-69.tif
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  • Pilgrims from all across Ethiopia trickle here to worship at Ethiopia’s holiest church, Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum. It claims to house the actual Ark of The Covenant in a small chapel behind it.
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  • A young man walking to one of Harar’s 82 mosques, no doubt, passes through the Jugol Wall via Buda Gate.
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  • Ras Makonnen was Emperor Menelik's cousin and was appointed first ruler of Harar after the emperor's occupation of the city. Ras Makonnen was also the father of the Emperor Haile Selassie.
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  • Two things in this scene really grabbed my attention and inspired me to make this photograph. Comment below what you think they were.
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  • This gentleman is the orthodox high priest of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. Upon finishing an outdoor mass he approached me and asked if I wanted to go inside to see crypts of Haile Selassie a.k.a. Ras Tafari and his wife which are kept inside, adjacent to the vestibule. He must have thought I was with Nat Geo or something as apparently they usually charge a ‘museum’ fee for that. I’m sure it’s intended to not only, well, raise money for the church, but also as a means to restrict the crowds and prevent the church from becoming a scene like that at Mao Zedong’s mausoleum. At any rate, I took him up on the offer and moments later found myself standing over the auxumite granite tombs of Emperor Haile Salassie (The Holy One), his wife Empress Menen Asfaw and other family members. I took in the significance of the moment. Not so much out of respect for his status as a leader, but more so from being the huge fan of reggae music that I am. I mean I’ve been hearing about this guy from Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and all of my other favorite rasta’s my whole life! The least I could do is bow my head for the inspiration he gave those fellas, right? <br />
As he was escorting me out, I thanked him quietly yet profusely and asked him if I could make a portrait to remember him by to which he gave an approving nod. I and I left that church feelin’ irie I for the rest of the day!
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  • A young student at an elementary school in Langa Township outside Cape Town, South Africa uses a head sized hole in the fence for the perfect  pose.
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  • Detail shot of one of The Church of St. George’s carved windows and lichen.
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  • I made this photograph on the side of the road during a brief stop on the long and winding road to Axum.
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  • A local woman glides down one of many ancient, colorful , cobblestone alleyways of Harar. <br />
*Recently, this photograph was one of three winning AWIF images in the International Travel Photography Awards Third Collection.
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  • One thing that never ceases to amaze me when I am working in the developing world is people’s propensity for making due with what they have by finding multiple uses for simple, everyday objects. This girl in the ancient walled city of Harar, Ethiopia whimsically and I must say beautifully illustrated that for me with her use of an old pot lid as a hat.
    20140930-Ethiopia-Harar-113.tif
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