Traveling through some of Africa’s most remote regions for months, German photographer Mario Gerth was led from the 21st century into another world. Gerth has shared a collection of intimate portraits from his trips that depict the last nomads and semi-nomads of an entire continent. His pictures are an homage to Africa and its people. They document, inform and preserve. His main goal, which he tries to achieve through his pictures and the stories that accompany them, is to inspire.
This collection, “Sons and Daughters of the Wind,” shows the nomads and semi-nomads of Africa living a frugal, basic and content life. The horizon is their home. They are the children of the sun and the sons and daughters of the wind.
Gerth had to spend the last six years in Africa on many different journeys. He spent two of those years biking from Cape Town to Cairo. Hundreds of kilometers by foot, boat or jeep, traveling in all directions has enabled Gerth to capture the unique beauty and stories of the people in the last remaining nomad communities.
One of Gerth’s very first portraits — taken in Timbuktu in 2008.
A Mursi girl from Mago National Park in the Omo valley of Ethiopia.
Salehe, a Samburu man from Kenya photographed on a Sahel trip in 2013.
Naongy, from the Surma people in Ethiopia.
Wanga, from the Samburu people of Kenya.
Muapanga, from the Mumuhuila people of Angola.
Baro Tura, from the Arbore people of Ethiopia.
Kasani, from the Fulani people of Burkina Faso.
