Up on the plateau in northern Ethiopia, life has barely changed in thousands of years. Sebastião Salgado spent two months walking in the mountains to catch the intricacies of the landscape. Text by Simon Willis
In the highlands of northern Ethiopia, the mountains keep insiders in and outsiders out. There is only one main road, and no other access except on foot. For Sebastião Salgado, who took these photographs, this made it a perfect subject. “I wanted to photograph here because it is isolated,” he says.
Pictured: The valley between Lalibela and Makina Lideta Maryan
“Before I got there”, says Salgado, “I heard a lot of people who specialise in Ethiopia saying, ‘You’ll find a lot of starvation up there. Most of the starving in Ethiopia come from these highlands.’ That’s a supposition. When I walked through it, I discovered a huge area of traditional agriculture and production, very well done, very well worked out”
