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Cecilia Lim | all galleries >> travel >> kenya >> the maasai > Dance of The Warriors
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26 July 2004 Maasai Mara National Reserve

Dance of The Warriors

By turning this image into sepia, I realized how much more powerful this image speaks in terms of how long the Maasai have held on to their traditions. These Maasai men re-enacted for us a dance they have traditionally performed for over hundreds of years each time before they went off to war - an appropriate image to open with here because the Maasai have built themselves a reputation as extremely aggressive and fierce warriors. Although this image was taken just last year in 2004, I feel like I have gone back in time to witness for myself a sense of their courage, strength and determination as they marched off to war.


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Guest 10-Oct-2007 09:22
great shot, this one. wonderful balance. almost poetic, and great choice of sepia.
cheers, rosmini
Phil Douglis02-Aug-2005 02:22
In the Samburu gallery, you used your strongest, most evocative image at the end. In this gallery, you choose to open with your most expressive image. In this scene, you define a culture by its ancient dance -- the stiffly extended legs seem to move in lock-step, and an arc of shadows march along side of them, evoking the past. The Acacia umbrella tree spreads its wings overhead. On one hand, this is a landscape. On another, a cultural portrait. Your use of sepia, as you say in your caption, makes it a timeless image. You abstract it by shooting them from behind, their very appearance is incongruous in the 21st Century, and you leave us with a pervasive human value: tradition.