Everyone in Ethiopia knows this hairstyle because it’s very specific to the Karrayyu people. They style their hair to invoke the shape of the sycamore tree, which is a sacred meeting place for the community. On market day, when they’re trading camels and get the opportunity to interact with women, all the guys pay very special attention to the hairstyle, spending a lot of time styling it.
The Karrayyu are a clan within the Oromo tribe, which is the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. They live in the Awash Valley area of central Ethiopia. Almost every single person in Ethiopia recognises the Karrayyu. But the reality is that this hairstyle is disappearing in the countryside. It’s something the older generations do; it’s especially hard to find younger men with it.
These three Karrayyu gentlemen – Boru, Woday and Fentale – are deep, deep countryside guys. The hair shows that they are traditional men who are connected to their community. A woman from the deep countryside community wants a man from the same. Imagine if you’re a father with a daughter from this community – you don’t want her to disappear and move to the city, so the hair is a signal: it’s kind of saying “traditional man”. And it looks really beautiful. They use kibbeh, which is clarified butter, to style it. The shape looks really nice. It’s hand-groomed and shows a high level of self-care.
I first met these men at the market trading camels. The men were friendly, but incredibly busy – they’re businessmen. They have a very good life and are very rich. We measure our wealth in money – they measure theirs in livestock. They won’t tell you how many camels they have, but it’s a lot.
We – our Ethiopian photography team, which comprises my fixer Nibret and my wife Kiya – asked if we could go to their village and photograph them there. It’s just outside a place called Metehara. We went the next day. There’s a road from Metehara, then it stops and you have to walk. We made an agreement with the men and elders from the community, and built our campsite near where their camels are kept. I took those photos the next morning around sunrise, near where they’re looking after their animals. One thing that makes it work is the eye contact.
We also built a tent studio there for more formal portraits. I’ve got some cool video of the people helping us build it, trying to get in through the door with their huge afros.
Ethiopia is a modern nation but it’s also an ancient kingdom. It has many colourful places that are frequently photographed, especially in the south, where the tribes have jewellery, scarification and amazing designs. The Karrayyu are highlander people, so they look very different.
There used to be a great divide in my photography between my commercial work and my personal shots, but over time, the line blurred. With the commercial work, clients usually want me to shoot in my own personal style. I’ve photographed celebrities from western culture, including Robert de Niro, David Beckham, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence. Michael K Williams was a very cool one. I also did the first Twilight movie poster. The guys in this photo are celebrities, too, local celebrities – the Robert de Niros of Metehara!
An Ethiopian photographer told me that when you google Ethiopia, you only see how foreigners have depicted the country. So much of the visuals we know are from the 1970s and 1980s famines – that’s not really what the country is about for locals and it shouldn’t be what the country is about for foreign photographers like myself.
Much of my life has become intertwined with Ethiopia – I married an Ethiopian woman and we live there. You have to take a deep dive when you’re working on a big project about a country. I hope my work helps correct how it is perceived.
Joey L’s CV
Born: Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, 1989.
Trained: Self-taught.
Influences: Gregory Crewdson, Mary Ellen Mark, Sebastião Salgado …
High point: “Managing to take a portrait of a subsistence crocodile hunter, Moryos, for my book. It was the most gruelling and difficult shoot, and it took five days and nights to get it.”
Low point: “Losing all I ever had in fire during a riot in Ethiopia. I kept my hard drives with my photos in a belt under my shirt, but I lost everything else.”
Top tip: “Photographers wonder what sort of personal project they should dedicate themselves to. They need to have interests outside of photography that they can train their vision on. What is a place that you’d love to spend time in and study even if your camera broke? That’s the kind of place you should do a personal project about.”
Ethiopia: 13 Years of Photographs from the Horn of Africa by Joey L is out now (Earth Aware Editions) and in a limited collector’s edition. More of Joey L’s work is here and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
