I came across the Omo Valley people a few months ago while researching nomadic tribes. German photographer Hans Silvester spent six years documenting the sophisticated patterns, color palettes, and natural embellishments of the Surma and Mursi tribes. They are permanently on display - walking canvases. These beautiful people will certainly be an inspiration for future paintings.
"In this region of East Africa, the rivers that run through the dry savannas are home to abundant flowers, papyrus, and wild fruit trees, and this luxuriance becomes an invitation to creativity and spectacle. Within hand's reach, a multitude of plants inspire fanciful and ephemeral self-decoration, and the Omo react spontaneously: a leaf, root, seed pod, or flower is quickly transformed into an accessory. As in the West one might don a hat, people create caps from tufts of grass. As one would knot a tie or scarf, they ornament themselves with banana leaves or a stem laden with flowers. These decorations are embellished with butterfly wings, buffalo horns, boar's teeth, colorful feathers, and the like, and are further enhanced by body painting with pigments made from powdered stone, plants, berries, and river mud." - book description from Amazon, "Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration From Africa."
A photo series can be found on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLR8wEvRfQ
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