where there’s smoke there’s fire

Back to Ethiopia is by Dino Brusco. The trip took place in April-May, 2014 (click on images for larger view):

Good morning everyone. Before approaching this trip, let me briefly introduce myself. I’m 40 yrs old, live in Northern Italy and photography became my passion since April 25th, 2004 when – thanks to a mistake, I did something “different”, that I liked so much to sparkle a real fire inside myself.

Fast forward till February 2012 when my wife and I concluded an adoption in Ethiopia of a very little boy. Unfortunately at the time we stayed only 1 week in Addis to fill all forms and paper and knew nothing but his birthdate and birthplace, Nekemte, 330 km west of Addis Ababa. When in 2014 I hinted I might have quit my company very soon, I booked a trip before it was too late. What I didn’t know was that right a few days before I left, several violent university revolts with Molotov’s, barricades, burned banks and cars etc had sparkled right in that area and soldiers were sent to stop them with use of force and gunfire. We even stumbled upon them, but let’s go with order.

Here’s a home-made map I prepared to show you the area where I wandered in these 4 days out (“punti panoramici” means “landscape viewpoints”):

Keep in mind most of the pictures have been taken from a running van for safety reasons. Thus, this isn’t a showcase of shining, perfectly exposed and pp’ed pictures, rather a series of images and stories I’m sharing with you. This is a summary of a 144-pages long photo book I prepared for my adoptive son.

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