Through images of extraordinary power and immediacy, photographer Gianni Giansanti takes the reader on a journey of discovery in Africa, and illustrates the life and traditions of the tribes who live there with a moving collection of African portraits. Each photograph becomes a masterpiece of abstract art, revealing close-ups of the tribes' traditional body paintings. They use their bodies as canvases, painting their skin with pigments made from powdered volcanic rock and adorning themselves with materials obtained from the world around them - such as flowers, leaves, grasses, shells and animal horns. African tribes are especially adept at this art, and - imbued with an exquisite sense of color and form - usually paint their naked bodies with colorful dots, stripes and circles, and encase themselves in elaborate arrangements of vegetation and found objects. This art is endlessly inventive, magical and, above all, fun. The book offers an incredible look at the stunning range of colors and textures of the life and people in Africa, while recording the fascinating beauty of a world always in danger of extinction.

Author Biography

Gianni Giansanti is the author of several bestselling photo essays, and his work documenting several papacies, violence by the Red Brigade and the Camorra syndicate, and the eruption of Mount Etna has earned him several prestigious awards.