sébastien cuvelier photography
baliem valley festival
every year in august, somewhere in the mountains of west papua, the small village of wosilimo is the theater of an old movie, one where papuans remember their past and try to re-enact it in style.
woman dust off their grass skirts and men grab their penis gourds for 3 days of dancing, mock fighting and sweet potatoes cooking.
before going there, I had feared to jump into a circus or worse, a zoo. although the zoo metaphor could be used for some respectless photographers who treat papuans like cattle, i thoroughly enjoyed my time there and spent a lot of time smiling and laughing with these people even though I could only speak gibberish. i was eventually rewarded with a sweet potato right out of the ground oven.
more pictures from a papuan wedding can be seen on this slideshow on vimeo with music recorded on site
fascination street
panginoon
nostalgia romania
soul of asia
no parking
slum smiles
gypsy kings
goldorak
a bali funeral
faraway, so close
day on earth
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