Tales by Light (2015) s01e06 Episode Script

1
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.
Art travels to Papua New Guinea
using new photographic
techniques to capture
the spirit of the
mysterious Mud Men tribe.
It's no longer a modern shoot,
it becomes what it should be.
This timeless,
ancient tradition.
Trekking further
to meet the Huli people
of the Southern Highlands,
Art encounters
fortune-tellers who speak
with their departed ancestors.
Are they verbally
asking questions?
Or they mentally, quietly,
asking questions and
receiving the answers?
Mentally,
mentally asking questions.
Art's journey
culminates by reaching
one of the most remote
and traditional groups
on the planet -
the Surma of Ethiopia.
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.
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.
As a photographer,
you would definitely be
remiss if you didn't stop
at the famous mud men
of New Guinea.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nice.
Nice, nice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So you do recognize a few!
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.
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.
These are the fiercest warriors
here in the highlands.
So I love that contradiction
of beautiful men
but fierce warriors.
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.
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.
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.
He says some
new visitors are coming,
so wake up,
we unlock the door, wake up.
Wow.
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?
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.
It's all in one family?
One family.
So, is this the entire
body was wrapped in this?
Yes.
Before we go to fight,
clan fight or enemy fight.
We have to talk
to the skulls first.
Are actually
verbally asking questions,
or are mentally quietly
asking questions
and receiving the answers?
Mentally, mentally
asking questions.
When he plays
with the head skulls
something comes through to him,
it's something like a dream.
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.
And after 40 years
of shooting non-stop,
this is a new subject,
and that makes me excited.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The human canvas is a project
I began about
4 years ago in Seattle.
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.
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.
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.
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
To make them look grotesque.
Yes, that's right.
From then on
that became the culture.
And now it's not
looked at as grotesque
it's now a sign of beauty.
No, a sign of beauty.
Wow, this is amazing to see.
Yeah, it is, isn't it?
They start to pierce
the lower lip
And they just put
a tiny little bit of clay?
A tiny bit of clay, wood.
Wood to start with?
To start with, it's wood.
And then it will
be bigger and bigger
and it will become like this.
And at this point,
the lip is healed and pliable
and they don't feel it.
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.
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.
Change was coming,
change is coming
almost everywhere.
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.
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.