I remember running my fingers over photographs of Southern Ethiopia’s tribes: the soaring bamboo architecture of the highlands, the intricate chalk patterns of the Omo River, and the striking clay lip plates of the Mursi. To a teenager holding an analog SLR camera, these images felt like windows into another universe. These were distant, mythical people living in a land so far away, I never in my wildest imagination dreamed I would one day stand in front of them—let alone with my own family by my side.

Years later, based in Addis Ababa, that distant horizon became our reality.