Sitting Warrior

The Dassanech Tribe is one of the tribes located in the most southern area of Ethiopia’s’ Omo Valley.  Unlike the tribes further north, who have the benefit of a lush environment, the Dassanech eek out a meager existence in a semi-arid desert environment. Cattle are critical to the members of the tribe.  They provide meat, milk, leather, and are a component for their houses.  Additionally, they play an important role in the status of a tribal member and provide bride-wealth that allows a man to marry.

The image of the warrior was taken underneath a small stand of trees so I could control the ambient light.  I used a black backdrop with a Profoto B10Plus with 5-foot Octa with diffuser. The diagram below shows the setup. The objective was to create a powerful image that used chiseled light as well taking advantage of the light wrap of the Octa. To achieve this, I positioned the Octa at an off-set angle getting only the very edge of light (see the red dotted line) from the Octa on the side of the warrior while allowing the rest of the light to wrap around his face and body. This allowed me to capture his stare without his dark skin blending into the black back-drop. The light on his right side (camera left) was create with a 4-foot silver reflector.

Here is what the set-up looked like in the field.