"[narrator] Every Powerful photograph... has a powerful story behind it." "Art Wolfe has spent much of his life creating a photographic record of the world's most threatened tribal communities." "Western civilization was going to slam into their culture." "[narrator] Art travels to Papua New Guinea using new photographic techniques to capture the spirit of the mysterious Mud Men tribe." "[Art] It's no longer a modern shoot, it becomes what it should be." "This timeless, ancient tradition." "[narrator] Trekking further to meet the Huli people of the Southern Highlands," "Art encounters fortune-tellers who speak with their departed ancestors." "[Art] Are they verbally asking questions?" "Or they mentally, quietly, asking questions and receiving the answers?" "[tribe member] Mentally, mentally asking questions." "[narrator] Art's journey culminates by reaching one of the most remote and traditional groups on the planet - the Surma of Ethiopia." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music]" "In 1984, I was invited to be the expedition photographer on the first western expedition allowed into China, through Tibet on up the north east ridge of Mount Everest." "I went on that expedition because I wanted to see the culture." "It was the cultures that really connected to me." "I'll never forget, going through the small town of Chagar, and all these people were sitting outside of a house, all cramming their heads into this tiny little space watching the only TV in that part of the world." "Western civilization was going to slam into their culture." "And I thought," "I'm going to go as vast and as broad as I can to the world's most remote places, because if it's happening in Tibet, it's surely happening in the Amazon, in the Andes, in Papua New Guinea." "Those traditional photos will become valuable records of what was once." "The first time I went to New Guinea, probably 20 years ago," "I went there simply because there what they call the Sing Sing." "This is when as many as 100 of these tribes, come into a peaceful competition, where the most elaborate dress or the most beautiful dance is rewarded." "And I've always wanted to go back, you know," "I've been travelling almost none stop, but in the back of my mind I wanted to go back to the mountains of New Guinea." "[narrator] Papua New Guinea has some of the richest concentrations of cultural diversity on earth." "For thousands of years the highlands have been home to isolated communities untouched by the outside world." "Almost over every escarpment you will find a unique group of people who proudly live out an ancient traditional life." "[Art] As a photographer, you would definitely be remiss if you didn't stop at the famous mud men of New Guinea." "[narrator] Legend has it that a warring tribe attacked the Mud Men's ancestors who sort refuge within the banks of the Asaro River." "At dusk they emerged covered with mud appearing like fierce spirits of the dead, causing their enemies to flee in terror." "Today the tradition lives on." "[Art] I wanted to find something that really captured the traditional locations that they lived and we looked for probably an hour and a half." "Finally found this little promatory out above this beautiful valley." "[gentle music] [gentle music]" "This is really cool, every time I turn around there is always a new composition." "There's such a beautiful symmetry with all these masks being very similar and the colour of the men the same, is just a really nice, beautiful composition." "And I still haven't shot the shot I came here to get yet." "Okay, so..." "I want to show you what I want to do." "[inaudible dialogue]" "And when you look up..." "When you shoot usual angles, you get usual shots." "And usual shots is exactly what I'm after." "So having all these guys with their masks looking straight down on me is a very unique perspective and it's really pushing the limits of my camera, it's late in the day, they're in deep shadow" "but I'm over exposing it and I'm getting a great shot and really cool, stay right there." "[shutter clicks]" "Nice." "Nice, nice." "[motors whirring]" "Technology has totally transformed the way we shoot, it's only enhanced my ability to capture what I'm after." "And using a drone, if you will, this ability to carry a camera directly above and shoot straight down allows me then to abstract their culture." "Ok good, let's take it off and move onto the next one." "Great job." "[gentle, rhythmic music]" "As the light dropped, the ambient light dropped, and the glow of the fire became more dramatic, and it suddenly becomes mysterious." "It's no longer a modern shoot, it becomes what it should be, this timeless ancient tradition." "And that's the beauty of working around traditional people in their environment, you just sit back and you integrate into their culture and allow them to channel their ancestors and their spirits into the moment and that's when, truly, the magic happens." "[gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music]" "[narrator] Art does not have to travel far to reach a community whose physical appearance could not be more different to the mud men." "The forests of the Southern Highlands have been home to the Huli clans for over a thousand years." "[Art] The Huli people are among the most distinctive of the hill tribes of Southern Papua New Guinea's mountains." "They're distinctive in their hair style, they make these hats out of their own hair, that they wear historically during war." "You know, the bigger the hat, the more fearsome the warrior." "It takes on average, 6 months to grow enough hair from their own bodies to fashion the wig they will keep the rest of their lives." "So Howard I brought my computer along, 20 years ago I was here and I want to see if you recognize any of the people." "[men speaking native language]" "So you do recognize a few!" "[men speaking native language]" "[Art] One of the primary reasons" "I love being a photographer is that the visual image connects with people." "For you to see the pictures I took that many years ago and actually recognize the individuals, that's really rewarding for me." "It's a connection to the past in the present and I love that." "[gentle music] [gentle music]" "[Art] So historically in the past when I was doing tribes," "I would just photograph the end result, you know, just the pageantry." "But today, I'm telling more of a story." "I want to get the men, what they look like before they're adorning, how they adorn themselves." "It's really funny because they have these little shards of mirrors that they've collected over the years and those are very valuable." "You know, they don't have living rooms, and bathrooms like typical western culture." "They almost look like fancy peacocks, you know the male of the peacock is the most elaborate and the most beautiful and in the Huli wig men, it's no less true." "The men became the peacocks of the tribe." "This is the bill of a horn bill, which is one of the most striking birds to fly in South-East Asia and through New Guinea, pig tusks, leaves, parrot feathers." "Then they collect the feathers from birds of paradise and that further completes this very elaborate costuming." "[drumming and vocalizing] [drumming and vocalizing]" "[Art] These are the fiercest warriors here in the highlands." "So I love that contradiction of beautiful men but fierce warriors." "[gentle music]" "My idea now, is to shoot something a little more formal." "In an ideal world, if I could shoot these gentlemen without really seeing much of a backdrop that's my aim." "I don't want really... they're already very complex and I don't want the intricacies of the forest to really overshadow what they're wearing." "And so the trick is to get them all in a pattern, a pattern of faces... it's easy to say, not so easy to do." "So he can come in the front, and you, you can come forward." "[men speaking native language]" "Trying to get this shot," "I'm looking essentially into history here and I want that feel to be conveyed to the viewers of my photos." "I want them to look straight into the camera and therefore, into the eyes of my audience to feel the power of the moment, the emotion of the moment." "And you accomplish that by that eye contact." "[shutter clicks]" "Again, in the age of digital, you couldn't have shown people, you know," "I would have had to go back to Seattle and have the film processed, and now, moments after I've taken the shot and it's really important for my subjects to be involved with me so they see there's a reason" "to put them through this torture." "So..." "Nice." "So you're working around these Huli and suddenly your guide says" ""Do you want to photograph the fortune tellers?"" "Fortune tellers?" "I didn't even know in this culture there were fortune tellers." "And so we were guided back through the valley into this really kind of dark, mysterious place... and here's these two Huli men that are guarding this thing that was a receptacle for skulls." "[man speaking native language]" "[Thomas] He says some new visitors are coming, so wake up, we unlock the door, wake up." "[Art] Wow." "[shutter clicking]" "[Art] Tell me a little bit, Thomas, about the significance of why they have this bury, is it a burial chamber?" "What, what are we looking at here?" "[Thomas] You see this one, this is first generation, that was second generation, third generation, fourth generation, fifth, sixth generation." "He will be seventh generation, his son will be eighth generation." "[Art] It's all in one family?" "[Thomas] One family." "[Art] So, is this the entire body was wrapped in this?" "[Thomas] Yes." "[Thomas] Before we go to fight, clan fight or enemy fight." "We have to talk to the skulls first." "[Art] Are actually verbally asking questions, or are mentally quietly asking questions and receiving the answers?" "[Thomas] Mentally, mentally asking questions." "When he plays with the head skulls something comes through to him, it's something like a dream." "[gentle music]" "[Art] Alright, now that I know what's going on here, my role as a photographer is trying to capture a shot that's powerful and evocative that really shows these two men within the context of this area." "[shutter clicking]" "And after 40 years of shooting non-stop, this is a new subject, and that makes me excited." "[shutter clicking] [gentle music and singing] [gentle music and singing] [gentle music and singing] [gentle music] [gentle music]" "[narrator] Thousands of kilometres away in Ethiopia," "Art is drawn to another indigenous group who share a similar tradition of using mud and clay... the Surma." "The people of New Guinea are extraordinarily creative, they adorn themselves with clay masks, and bird of paradise and beetle wings, the Surma really have little chunks of clay that they adorn themselves with everyday." "They're not dressing up for tourists in other words, they are what they are, replete with lip disc, and pierced ears and scarification." "This is what I live for." "These are indeed really remote tribes." "[narrator] Surma is the collective name for the Suri," "Mursi and Me 'en groups which inhabit the southwest corner of Ethiopia." "They live a traditional life on the land which has changed very little over the centuries." "[Art] So every morning these Surma men come down to the river, this small stream coming out of the mountain, it's cool, it's clear, it's refreshing, and they'll bathe." "And then they apply this clay to their bodies as protection from the sun, and to mitigate the effects of flies on their body as well and over time what was just a smear of white clay has become adornment." "[gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music]" "What I'm going to do now that I've seen how beautifully adorned they are, is to shoot abstracts and turn it from just a cultural image into something a little more abstract, more Picasso-eqse if you will, and create art from it." "[gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music]" "The human canvas is a project" "I began about 4 years ago in Seattle." "[gentle music]" "I thought, I would love to take the human form and photograph that in a way that the roots of traditional cultures and primitive art is woven into a modern composition." "[gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music]" "And so here in the remote area of Ethiopia" "I am now coming up a new way of really combining the element of art with photography." "So I'm going to take this clay and paint her into a backdrop I created in Seattle, and hopefully if this goes well it will be stunning." "[gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music] [gentle, rhythmic music]" "You know I'm motivated by a lot of different things," "I love to challenge myself," "I love to explore." "Now at 63, I recognize how fast life goes." "And so I want to see as much on this tiny planet as I can during my lifetime, but I also want to encourage and inspire other people to travel, to get out there and see the world," "to see nature, to see cultures, to see something different than where they live." "[gentle music] [gentle music]" "[Robel] The lip disc started during slavery." "When the slave traders came into this area, the Surma men wanted to protect their women." "So, these women, they started this practise, this lip plate to disfigure themselves..." "[Art] To make them look grotesque." "[Robel] Yes, that's right." "From then on that became the culture." "[Art] And now it's not looked at as grotesque it's now a sign of beauty." "[Robel] No, a sign of beauty." "[Art] Wow, this is amazing to see." "[Robel] Yeah, it is, isn't it?" "They start to pierce the lower lip..." "[Art] And they just put a tiny little bit of clay?" "[Robel] A tiny bit of clay, wood." "[Art] Wood to start with?" "[Robel] To start with, it's wood." "And then it will be bigger and bigger and it will become like this." "[Art] And at this point, the lip is healed and pliable and they don't feel it." "[Robel] They don't feel any pain." "We are just sitting around camp after having a busy morning shooting and this lady walked in with this very unbelievable lip disc." "This is about twice the size of the largest one" "I've seen over the last thirty years." "[Ataye] It's been three years now since I first pierced my lip." "I travelled away from my village to have it done, where a special lady made the piercing for me." "It is a tradition in our culture and that is why I did it." "Growing up, I always saw the women wearing lip discs." "And when I wear it, I feel very proud." "It makes me feel I belong." "There are two reasons for the removal of my bottom teeth." "Firstly, if I experience lock-jaw through illness, water can be poured in." "And secondly, it allows me to eat and drink with lip piercing." "I don't think it's big enough." "And I want to make it bigger." "My mother, and her mother and her mother all had this." "And I do not know why the tradition started." "But the younger generation is not wanting to pierce the lip and I have to accept that change." "[Art] Change was coming, change is coming almost everywhere." "[gentle music]" "There was a need and a desire to go out as far field as I could with that singular mission of documenting cultures as they will inevitably change." "I'm not just doing it because I'm an artist or I love adventure," "I'm doing it out a sense of obligation to record what might not exist too far into the future." "[shutter clicks]" "Some of my best shots are the ones I had not planned on getting." "And this is one of them." "I had fully expected to silhouette these Surma against the descending sun and a big old cloud came over the mountain ridge and yet it makes the shot more surreal, more provocative." "To have these Surma warriors on the edge of this cliff looking out into space, is a metaphor for an uncertain future." "I have spent the last thirty years travelling the world photographing vanishing cultures with the idea that someday they may be very important to have a record, and this shot of these Surma on this evening could be one of those." "[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music]" "[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music]"