Joey Lawrence
Friday, 4 September 2009
I have never been to Ethiopia, and, before today, I never wanted to go at all. All that changed when I stumbled across Joey Lawrence’s Abyssinia series. Much has been covered of the nation in the media; the lingering image in my head is that of the 1985 famine: starving children with bloated stomachs and bony limbs, gaunt faces further made more harrowing with glazed blank eyes, emaciated cattle straying helplessly in search of food, parched land streaked with cracks and void of moisture. It looked to be a place I did not want to visit - ever! Yet, when I see these images, I become deeply fascinated - what life is and means for these people: simple, albeit tough. I very much doubt my ability to ever live like that - robbed of my precious digital technology and unabated addiction for constant connectivity and news - but it is a pictures like these that remind me what life probably was for my ancestors…