We embed ourselves in the security of the familiar, there are many familiars, in-so-doing we form an ‘us’ and a ‘them’, creating boundaries that are seldom crossed.

Here, within these images we cross those boundaries, enter the world of others, the world of those HIDDEN. So much of life is a journey, it is a road of discovery, but often the objective of that journey is like that of Odysseus, and is, in reality, a course to understand that most complicated of things – ourselves.

The taking of these photos traces roads of personal discovery where I have sought peoples who in a short time will no longer exist, and, along with the purity of their culture, will disappear into that haziness we call time.

I also travelled along another road, that road within. Maybe attempting to understand the past, and those passing, is merely a part of understanding my own self, which may prove to be the greatest journey of all.

THE HIDDEN is the result of several journeys to visit tribal peoples in a variety of countries and locations, all remote, all the last holdout of endangered peoples, if not endangerment of the people themselves then of their intrinsic cultures, their uniqueness, the personality of their being. How fortunate to interact with some of them before they are gone forever.

In this exhibition I present ‘Widow Women’ of the PNG Highlands, covered in clay and crude shawls, draped in beads of Job’s tears as they mourn the loss of their husbands. Also from those Highlands are warriors of the Huli Wigmen with tribal peoples of Chimbu province as they struggle to retain their culture.

From North East India are the Konyak Naga head-hunters; tattooed warriors of which only a few are still living. From Arunachal Pradesh women of the Apatani. Tattooed, with huge inserted nose plugs, only fifty or so remain eking an existence in this land at the foot of the Himalayas.

These are the HIDDEN.

Biography

David’s working life was mostly spent in the Middle East and Asia. He was fortunate to have been in touch with many different cultures, where possible, to be able to look at each from within, a perspective he has tried to maintain in his travels.

His photography is mostly of people and their cultures, the story of mankind. His images are drawn from his need to speak of the human condition.

David has exhibited his series ‘The Taken’ at a number of venues including Parliament House Melbourne.

Website: emicimages.com

Instagram: @emicimages