"I'm always surprised when people see my work in an exhibition, they think it’s a painting," says Ethiopia-based photographer Aïda Muluneh. The body paint she uses is a visual conglomeration of the patterns used by various ethnic groups throughout Ethiopia, the country where she was born. Her work, in its eye-catching vibrance, celebrates the country and defies the narratives of constant struggle placed on it by outsiders. Muluneh left Ethiopia at five with her mother during the country’s famine in the 1980s and lived between Yemen and England, eventually settling in Canada in 1985. First assembled in 2010, it is East Africa’s first international photography festival and takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Source: Ethiopian News September 28, 2018 02:48 UTC