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In April 2011, my wife, Jean, and I went to the sub-Sahara African countries of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. On our tour we took exciting safaris into the bush to see, admire, and photograph the wondrous wild animals we all expect to encounter in that region of the world.
Our tour company also took us to visit a school in Victoria Falls and to Chiawa Cultural Village in Zambia. The village has been located there on the Lower Zambezi River for at least 2000 years. The villagers honor and demonstrate many ancient traditions, having very few modern conveniences. The children live at home and attend a village school from age six until third or fourth grade when they go to a regional school. What struck me the strongest was the timeless beauty of the children.
I found them to be so engaging and expressive, as well as demonstrative in nature and demeanor. Those characteristics are what I have tried to represent in these images. It seems to me to be important that these images be in black and white. That monochromatic format seems to have a quality of timelessness like the Chiawa village and its ever-present children. The absence of the bright African colors in the images emphasizes the connection to and relationship of the viewer with the subjects.