Borana Portrait

Water as an economic good and not as a basic right of man is a concept that is spreading more and more throughout the world. In many countries the privatization of what is now called ?blue gold? is starting to create tensions between the citizens and the multinational water concessionaries. In the dry lands of Oromia, south Ethiopia, the Borana?s, a semi nomad pastoral population, are able to manage their water resources through a community organization that ensures the use of it to everyone without any money exchange involved. Centenary wells known as ?singing wells?, dug out in the rock and maintained through an accurate division of voluntary work, allow the survival of this population and of their only resource, the cattle, through the long dry season. The Borana have already been a study subject for their special social organization (Gada), but it is in this particular time the world is living that they deserve special attention for the extraordinary way they are able to guarantee access to water to all in one of the driest regions on Earth.

I was born in Beirut in 1974. With a degree in Geography and the desire to travel and narrate the world, I have adopted photography as the expressive medium to stimulate, through small stories, a reflexion on great themes that are common to the entire humanity. One of the founding principles of sustainable development is ?think globally but act locally?. On this same belief I try to base my photographic projects. Without the pretention of covering in all their complexities, subjects such as work, food, water, etc. I try to present the stories that are in some way emblematic and that, through emotions, are able to move the consciences or simply provoke curiosity on the dynamics that regulate our planet.