Quiet Dignity

As I select the countries where I travel and the images I make in communities around the world, I began to realize I’m most often drawn by human dignity. Operating with magnetic force and with directionality like a North Star found by using a compass, I recall being mesmerized by the royal gaze of this young girl who is a member of four small Arbore tribes in the Southern Omo Valley of Ethiopia.

Hers is not the superficial royalty of princesses, queens, gowns, and crowns in fairy tales. She embodies beauty, to be sure, but deeper and more profoundly, her simple cloth and colorful beads adorn a soul of incomparable value. Her people raise livestock and find their sustenance as careful stewards of the land and its resources. The community is tightly woven with lessons learned over centuries and traditions that reflect dignity in quiet, everyday tasks and celebrations of life’s glorious moments as they journey from birth to the last minute of life.

If I were to invite this young girl into my home, I can think of nothing more splendid than sitting silently, side-by-side, watching the sunrise on a new day, and absorbing her quiet dignity.