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< Back The Dani come to Auckland 27 Sept 2023 In Guy Needham's first New Zealand show in three years, The Dani is now showing at The Grey Place in Auckland. A testament to the tribe, the exhibition will be a collection of intimate portraits displaying both a quiet intensity and a subtle momentum. The images – all taken using natural light in front of a backdrop held up by villagers – are printed on C-Type photographic prints and Giclee prints. The Grey Place is open 10am-3pm Tues-Sun at 37 Scanlan Street, Grey Lynn. < Previous Next >

< Back Carnaval in the Bogota Post 25 Jan 2018 Colombia's Bogota Post has selected an image taken by Guy Needham at the recent Carnaval de Negros y Blancos for its front page. It's a rare honour for a foreign photographer covering a Colombian cultural event to be featured in this newspaper. You can see the image here . < Previous Next >

< Back La Mercè selected for US exhibition 13 Sept 2021 La Mercè, an image taken for a New Zealand Herald article, has been selected for Praxis Gallery's International Juried Photography Exhibition. Taken during Barcelona's Correfoc de la Mercè, the photo celebrates the heady mix of street theatre, dance and pyrotechnics on Via Laietana. La Mercè will be on display at the 'After Dark' exhibition from October 16 in the city of Minneapolis. < Previous Next >

The leader reaches in between the freshly cut, drooping skin and through to the open organ cavity. Twisting his hand with a precision that only comes with age, he pulls out the bloody liver. The baboon dripping in front of him will be dinner, and perhaps breakfast, for the four families gathered under the ledge. < Back The Last Great Hunter Gatherers The Travel Almanac 24 Jan 2024 The leader reaches in between the freshly cut, drooping skin and through to the open organ cavity. Twisting his hand with a precision that only comes with age, he pulls out the bloody liver. The baboon dripping in front of him will be dinner, and perhaps breakfast, for the four families gathered under the ledge. Tossing offal to the scrawny, yapping dogs, he picks up his bow and wipes the arrows clean. They will be used again tomorrow by the only tribe permitted to hunt in the Serengeti: the Hadzabe. Considered to be Africa’s last true hunter-gatherers, the Hadzabe have lived around Tanzania’s Lake Eyasi since the beginning of the Stone Age . Their origins are our origins: they are the closest living relatives of the humans who first left Africa to migrate to the rest of the world. At first glance, one might take in their dusty environment, spiked spears and worn kudu skins and describe their way of life as primitive. While it’s true that the Hadzabe’s traditions have not changed much over the past millennia, it would be a mistake to prejudge them. For in this land of survival, their uncluttered lives are a counterpoint to the West’s preoccupation with peak everything and insta-gratification. As discussion ensues regarding which parts of the primate to carve up, the words selected not from a universal phonetics. Rhythmic clicks come from the back of their mouths as tongues flick in a musical dance. Each ‘djik’ and ‘thock’ of the Hadzabe language literally preserves their culture, for they neither read nor write. Teachings are passed down orally and visually. A daughter watches intently as her mother plucks a bird, the child’s wondrous eyes popping out of an atmosphere of dust. The wet season is yet to arrive here — yet to dull the odour of animal innards and still-damp hides that permeates the air. D ust rides in on a breeze, as transient as the families it lands upon. Every few months t hese subsistence nomads pack up their modest belongings and move to another boma [ rock ledge ] , where food is more plentiful. For in this land of survival, their uncluttered lives are a counterpoint to the West’s preoccupation with peak everything and insta-gratification. Balancing the ecosystem is existential — if there is no prey to catch, the Hadzabe starve. Today’s choice of arrowhead is barbed; tomorrow’s might be tipped with poisonous sap from the desert rose. The hunters wear their prowess with pride, whether with the skin of an antelope draping their torso or a headpiece made from baboon hair. The women are more demurely wrapped in cloth. One young girl is dressed in a cut - out hessian sack. Chasing away the flies, the leader starts hacking at the lifeless baboon. Cutting off long , lean strips, he hands them to the children who eagerly, haphazardly, place them over the open fire. Although the men eat separately from the women and children, the seared meat is shared equally; the Hadzabe’s communal egalitarianism means no one gets more or less than another. Their appreciation is announced with every loud bite and sinewy chew —taste torn into by hungry mouths as today’s catch is savoured. Although there is no formal hierarchy, it falls to the leader, usually the best hunter, to maintain the group’s harmony. If a dispute arises, it is usually resolved by one party apologising. If a Hazda man does not admit fault despite evidence to the contrary, he receives the most personal of punishments —confiscation of his bow, making him “more useless than a woman. ” The alternative, being cast out to the harsh terrain, is too punitive, for even the majestically ugly baobab trees offer little respite from the sun. The wind whips up sand circles in the sky. It is easy to forget that in a few months’ time this will all be a sea of green. Before then, though, the women must look for sustenance, walking for hours in search of nourishment from roots, fruit and berries. On their backs are babies, quietly staring out to the wilderness. Some of the infants have fresh scars on their cheeks — cuts that were made by their parents. When a baby cries too much the wounds are irritated by their tears, and the child learns to stop crying. For many Hadzabe men, their cheek scars are as prominent as the redness of their eyes, a consequence of smoking bushweed and imbibing fermented sorghum —n ot that this makes them any less attractive. Marriage is a common , monogamous union between Had zabe men and women , but should either party wish to walk away, they do just that and then they are “ divorced. ” The leader carefully resheathes his bloody knife. Two starlings flutter low overhead and he immediately looks up, before slowly turning to flash a knowing smile. It looks like tomorrow will be a poisoned-arrow kind of day. Original Publication: The Travel Almanac < Previous Next >

< Back From Papua to Boston 15 Nov 2022 Boston's Griffin Museum of Photography will be the first United States gallery to feature one of the Dani tribe from Indonesia's Papua region. Although thousands of years old, the Dani were unknown to the rest of the world until 1938. Today they still live a simple life and, while not isolated from the march of modernity, their traditions and values have endured. The portrait of Lokop Mabel, pensive while smoking and wearing a traditional horim (penis gourd), will be part of the Winter Solstice exhibition on show in Massachusetts from 9 December 2022 - 8 January 2023. < Previous Next >

Like their ancestors before them, the Hamar of the Lower Valley of the Omo are agro-pastoralists and subsistence farmers. The fields of sorghum that they live off are not far from their ornay (huts) and the bocas where the elders sit and chat. TRIBES The Hamar Lower Valley of the Omo, Ethiopia Like their ancestors before them, the Hamar of the Lower Valley of the Omo are agro-pastoralists and subsistence farmers. The fields of sorghum that they live off are not far from their ornay (huts) and the bocas where the elders sit and chat. < Previous Next >

< Back The AFAR Guide to Auckland 12 Dec 2017 Want to know more about visiting New Zealand's 'City of Sails'? Check out this guide on AFAR.com that I locally edited, to find out the best places to stay, where to eat & drink, what to do, and of course, where to shop. The AFAR Guide to Auckland is here. < Previous Next >

< Back Pride of Kenya 11 Dec 2018 If you want to know about drinking goat's blood and tracking lions, pick up a copy of today's New Zealand Herald. The cover article of Travel is my first hand account of journeying into lion country to meet the fearsome Samburu warriors - who are forced to leave home when 12 to fend for themselves. You can read the full article here . < Previous Next >

No one knows exactly where they originally came from, not even their chief. The first indigenous inhabitants of the Onconcua region in southwestern Angola, the semi-nomadic Vatwa are one of the few tribes that imitate the dress of another, the Himba. TRIBES The Vatwa Oncocua, Angola No one knows exactly where they originally came from, not even their chief. The first indigenous inhabitants of the Onconcua region in southwestern Angola, the semi-nomadic Vatwa are one of the few tribes that imitate the dress of another, the Himba. < Previous Next >

TRAVEL ANL Bindaree Tasman Sea, Australia The ANL Bindaree, a Liberian-flagged freighter laden with 30,000 tones of freight and 24 crew, follows a little-known tradition of passengers on cargo ships, harking back to the days when cabins were set aside for owners and VIPs. Today they’re taken by people looking for a slow alternative to air travel, who are independent, have time to spare, and who just want to do something a little different. Previous Next

< Back Hadzabe Girl in Budapest 16 Nov 2019 Next week Hadzabe Girl appears as part of a group exhibition to be held at Budapest's Ferencvárosi Művelődési Központ. One of only 13 finalists from around the world, the image will be part of a show run by The Budapest Diary - an initiative to connect artists and build bridges between peoples, nations and cultures by using photography. < Previous Next >

< Back Exposição os Dani 23 Sept 2025 Guy Needham's inaugural exhibition in Portugal, Os Dani, opened in Lisboa this weekend hosted by PsiRelacional and Incubator Photo Gallery. The opening night included a dialogue on "Art, Identities and Psychoanalysis", with a discussion on the role of norms, customs, and social cohesion in different societies. The exhibtiion runs for a month and has limited edition books available on The Dani exhibition in both English and Portuguese. < Previous Next >