Eric Lafforgue is a prolific, talented photographer who’s travelled the world, living among people in many hard-to-reach places and telling their stories with his camera. Among the most striking sets of images in his deep portfolio is his 2013 portraits of Daasanach people in Ethiopia, who have created exuberant wigs and hats from mass-produced consumer goods, both new and discarded, that have recently reached their part of the world.
As Lafforgue describes it, the fashions are a combination of a history of recycling, the commemoration of personal lives (a young girl who made a necklace out of syringe caps after a vaccination campaign in her village) and the knowing creation of artifacts that will attract tourists, who pay for taking photos of the wearable art and its creators.
Photos tagged “Daasanach” [Eric Lafforgue/Flickr]
Stunning pictures capture the meeting of tribal tradition and consumerism [Margot Huysman/Metro]