<p>Living in and around the Mago and Omo National Parks in Ethiopia are some of the oldest tribes known to man. These tribes continue to live in much the same manner over hundreds of years. The eight tribes, Hamar, Banna, Mursi, Suri, Kara, Dassanach, Arbore and Nyangatom number only about 200,000 in toto. With modern development knocking at their doorstep, the tribes face challenges they had never imagined.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In multiple visits, over two years, Latika has taken over 60,000 images in Ethiopia. This incredible database of the people, their culture, customs and lifestyle is unique and reveals aspects of their lives seldom seen to the world. She documents the donga, bull jumping, fashion, body scarification and decoration, lip and ear plates, blood drinking, their song and dances, rituals and ceremonies, their unique architecture, and food vessels as well the importance of the AK-47 in their lives.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Omo Fashion is another extraordinary study – where broken watch straps are de rigueur for the fashionista, where gas pipes, bottle caps, plastic tubes, miscellaneous keys, and even a bicycle chain are fashion accessories and different colored metal bullets are melted and made into bangles and earrings. Headdresses are devised from flowers, fruit and leaves and bodies are canvasses for artistry painted using natural pigments. Beads are an essential part of the adornment and goat and even cheetah skin is embroidered painstakingly to create unique outfits. Ash and thorns are used for creating intricate and elaborate keloid scars to decorate bodies. The human body is used as a canvas for body art that is quite breathtaking.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>These photographs of unique landscapes, incredible images of men and women of extraordinary beauty, of children of nature who are masters of body art, the OMO collection is a story that has never been told in quite this fashion and detail.</p>

<p><strong>Latika Nath,</strong> author, conservation ecologist and photographer is one of the first wildlife biologists with a D.Phil on Tiger Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Latika has spent over twenty-five years working at the grassroots level for tiger conservation. She eventually shifted her focus from academia to working with the indigenous communities around the Kanha Tiger Reserve. She focused on projects&nbsp; on education, health, art, and alternate energy.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Her life and work have been featured on National Geographic television in a documentary called ‘The Tiger Princess’ and on the Discovery Channel in the program ‘Wild Things’. She has worked with numerous international organisations including IUCN, UNDP, UNFPA and ICIMOD on many species including the Asian Elephant, the Gangetic Dolphin, the Arna or Wild buffaloes, and high-altitude mammals in the Kanchenjunga area. Her areas of interest include landscape ecology and the resolution of human-wildlife conflict.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>For the past few years, Latika has been traveling and photographing the cat species of the world. She has photographed tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars, snow leopards and clouded leopards. She has recently published a coffee table book called “Hidden India” on the wildlife and wilderness spaces of India which received wide acclaim. Her photographs has been shown in several solo and groups exhibitions internationally and she has contributed her writings to scientific publications and books on the tiger and other species.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Latika is a Nikon Professional and works closely with Nikon in India.</p>