Jon Black Photography » Work

Worku Mamo, Ethiopian Artist

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:09:18 +0000

After Losing his arms in an explosion as a child, Worku Mamo was not a likely candidate to become an influential artist in Ethiopia. Nearly 60 years later he has become just that. His love for his craft is contagious and accomplishing what he has with the limitations he has is truly inspirational. He currently owns and runs an art school with his Daughter in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian Skier :: Robel Teklemariam

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:57:49 +0000

Robel Teklemariam is the first athlete to represent Ethiopia in any event at the Winter Olympics. He competes in various Men’s cross country skiing events. Robel will compete in the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. He’s a pioneer for Ethiopia and Africa and he has Olympian written all over him.

More about Robel…

video credit:

One Winter, Five Dreams

Artist Gebrekristos Solomon

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:21:34 +0000

Ethiopian artist Gebrekristos Solomon in his studio in Piassa, Addis Ababa

Boge Gebre

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:50:47 +0000

What a wonderful woman! This is an assignment I shot earlier this month for Associated Press.

Bogaletch Gebre was born in Kembatta in southern Ethiopia. She grew up in a culture where women experience heavy labor from a young age and are treated far less than equal from men. Determined to learn to read, she ran six miles each way to a missionary school and became the first girl from her village to be educated beyond the fourth grade. Her mother was occasionally beaten for allowing her to attend school. Like millions of African girls, she underwent Female Circumcision. Escaping four attempted forced marriages by abduction, Boge received scholarships to attend high school in Addis Ababa and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she studied microbiology and physiology. With money scrimped from scholarship stipends, she built a tin-roofed house for her father’s family, the first in the village. In a society where fathers are known by the accomplishments of their sons, people of Kembatta began to understand the value of educating girls when they saw the “house that Gebre’s daughter” built. Boge became the first Ethiopian woman to join the science faculty at the University of Addis Ababa and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study parasitology at the University of Massachusetts. Since then Boge has returned to Ethiopia to start Kembatti Mentii Gezzima-tope (Kembatta Women’s Self-Help Center). The organization has worked in Boge’s Homeland of Kembatta since 1997 seeing a 97% reduction of Female Circumcision in the area. The organization also battles for Women’s rights and HIV awareness.

I am very fortunate to get to meet Boge and listen to amazing stories that need to be heard. For more info on Boge and her Organization Visit www.kmgselfhelp.org

The Greatest of all time!

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:44:30 +0000

Haile Gebrselassie, Greatest long distance runner of all time.

This was one of the first photo shoots for Addis Life. He was gracious enough to invite us to his house for an interview and photos. After an hour of stories and viewing his trophies it dawned on me how important this man is to Ethiopia. He is unbelievably humble and quite hilarious. He holds the marathon world record at 2:03:59. THATS RUNNING 26 miles in 2 hours… What???

Just so you know when we left his house we walked up the stairs together and I hung with him all 17 steps.

These are the first pair of shoes Haile ever raced with. Before he borrowed this pair from his brother he raced barefoot. After winning this particular race he returned the shoes to his brother. Little did he know he would soon sign a lucrative sponsorship deal with Adidas.