Selected photos from around the world
An Israeli parades the national flag in front of Palestinian neighbourhoods in occupied east Jerusalem; a Hamar woman describes the ornamnets around her neck that reveal she is a second class citizen; and a salt-miner walks across the Danakil Depression with slabs of salt on the back of camels; welcome to the big wide world.
It took about an hour of waiting, but eventually enough space opened up for me to capture a single moment (rather than 5000 all at once). Such was the frenetic pace and density of these streets, it’s difficult to convey how rare this moment in time actually was. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2017.
A full set of smiles in Sapa, Vietnam, 2018
Goats make their way home for dinner after a day grazing in the fields, while mum and bub look on. Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan, 2017
My favourite planet. Köl-Suu, Kyrgyzstan, 2017
Mattress/trampoline, same thing. Sri, Nidah, Malek, Bilal & co. jump for joy in their back yard at Sateh al-Bahr, Palestine, 2017. The hills that surround their encampment have been claimed by Israel as an official military zone.
A young Palestinian shepherd guides his goats home after a day grazing in the hills just north of Jericho, Palestine, 2016.
A window display catches the eye of shoppers as they walk the corridors of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar. The famous Bazaar is not only one of the oldest shopping malls in the world, it’s also one of the largest. The Bazaar consists of over 10 kilometres of labyrinthine alleyways, corridors, stairwells and hidden passages, where street traders sell everything from dried figs to flat screen TVs. Tehran Iran, 2013.
As call to prayer rings out across the old city of Jerusalem, an Israeli parades the national flag in front of neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, which are Arab. Palestinians in east Jerusalem have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. East Jerusalem, Palestine, 2016.
The fabulous festival of colour that is Harar, Ethiopia. Briskly walking through the alleyways of Harar at any given time will be colourfully dressed Harari woman carrying intricately woven baskets, sacks, ceramics or ‘miscellaneous’ atop their heads. 2016.
A fruit shop in the dusty border town of Doğubayazıt in the far east of Turkey, 2013. This is the last stop before crossing the border into Iran.
Iftu of the Oromo ethnic group, Harar Old City, Ethiopia, 2016. The Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa, at approximately 34.5% of Ethiopia’s population.
Any apprehension one might have had about safety in Iran will be quickly quashed, as you very promptly discover that locals aren’t just relaxed about the idea of western tourists, they’re thrilled about it. This man, like most Iranians, wanted to know where I was from. He, like many Iranians, loves Australia. He offered to drive me across town, free of charge. The crippling traffic in Tehran makes a motorbike the fastest (and most entertaining).
A child prepares to take the plunge into a rock pool in Dalieh, Beirut. Dalieh is a natural pen- insula of sand dunes, lush soil and sedimentary rock cliffs that gradually fold into tide pools. It’s one of the few remaining stretches of coastline open to the public and its future remains uncertain due to a proposed luxury resort.
A Syrian refugee in her makeshift tent in the Bekaa Valley in the east of Lebanon. At the height of the civil war in 2015, The UN registered nearly half a million refugees living in camps in the Bekaa Valley, many of whom had escaped the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. Baalbek, Lebanon, 2015
The long march back to the Saharan settlement of Chinguetti in Mauritania. Camel nomads have an unerring sense of direction across the desert, skilfully able to navigate the fastest route to their destination.
A woman inside her mud and stick hut in a village close to Turmi, Ethiopia. Jewellery and ornaments are worn to show social and marital status among Hamar women. The two metal necklaces around her neck show she is married. However, the absence of a third necklace reveals she does not hold the highly sought status of a “first wife”. The Hamar tribe practices polygamy, and while a man is entitled to as many wives as he can afford (paid in goats, cattle and guns), women can only marry one man. Life for the second and third wives is challenging and can often lead to exploitation. This woman has survived her husband and now heads the household, a trend that is common in the Hamar tribe due to age disparity between husbands and wives.
Water; around here, if you can get it... embrace it. A boy gulps from a makeshift cup in the parched Keske River in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. All that remains of the river is a few puddles, which locals use to rehydrate and bathe in. The dry heat, arid landscape and scarcity of water mean that even the slightest trace of H2O is met with a mixture of relief and glee.
The Danakil Depression in northeast Ethiopia is one of the hottest, lowest and most inhospitable places on earth; a vast wilderness of rumbling volcanoes, salt flats and sulphur springs. Each day in the blistering sun, Afar miners hack for salt (aka white gold) from the earth’s crust. Over 2000 camels are loaded with the minerals and then transported to Berahile, a small town some 75km away where the salt is sold or traded. After some all too brief respite, both camel and human grit their teeth and begin the 2-day march back across the desert basin… and start it all again. Danakil Depression, Ethiopia, 2016.
A Vietnamese rice farmer prepares the terraces in the Hoàng Liên Son mountain range. In Vietnam, almost every meal involves rice. And it’s on these winding terraced fields that farmers toil to cultivate the rice that is so deeply rooted in the nation’s national psyche. Sử Pán, Vietnam, 2018.
A woman works in a plastics processing plant near the Buriganga river in Old Dhaka. Dhaka creates up to 4000 tons of waste daily, yet somehow functions without a formal recycling system. There are approximately 200 factories engaged in recycling plastic bottles in Bangla- desh, ranging from brightly lit, air-conditioned factories to tiny, dimly lit and barely insulated tin sheds.