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Born Day Reflections

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It is another birthday that I do not celebrate but observe. It is like those national or international holidays that you mark or remember but still have to go to work. These days what I see is not how old I am but how long I have lived on this planet and how well. I would say, I have lived a good number of years surpassing the life expectancy of Ethiopia in 1974 which was shockingly only 39.45 for males. Yes, things have changed and Ethiopians are expected to live until 65. I live in the United States which has a higher life expectancy than Ethiopia even if it is one of the lowest for the highly developed economies of the world.  This makes me grateful and hopeful at the same time. It also motivates me to live more purposefully. I am learning to be more grounded, appreciate the moment, and feel the wonders of simple things. I am learning to enjoy simple things like riding a bike in pouring cold rain at 5:20 a.m in the morning feeling the cold rain washing my face and breathing in t...
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Reflection of a Half Century

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  Reflection of a Half-Century  Part One 1973-1991 The average life expectancy of an Ethiopian is 67.81 years in 2023. It had been as low as 46.13 years in the 90s when war and the high infant mortality rate kept it low. An improvement was made in the 2000s when basic health services managed to reduce the high infant mortality rate. I am living in the United States now which has a life expectancy of 74 years for men. That means I have about two decades to enjoy planet Earth. I am at the beginning of an age where you have more stories to tell. So that is what I am going to do.  Self Portrait 2023. Keeping a tradition of Birthday Portrait.  My generation has gone through so much in a lifetime that life reflects our country’s break from thousands of years of tradition to stumbling into the unknown, experimenting with ideology and theories that had not been proven to work with the country.  I was born in December 1973 during the last days of the last Ethiopian Emper...
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Houseless

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 Homelessness is one of the significant problems in cities across the United States. Especially cities of the west coast from southern California to the Pacific North West. The problem is causing a huge impact on daily activities within the municipalities.  When I moved to Seattle five years ago I was shocked to learn how many people are homeless and living on the street, in shelters, and in tents. Currently, around 13,000 are homeless in Seattle's metro area alone. It was and to some extent, it is still hard for me to understand why so many people are houseless in one of the richest countries of the world. 
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Birthday Portrait and Story

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 Another birthday portrait and time to reflect.  I no longer count my gray hairs or my wrinkles. It doesn't matter anymore how gray my hair is and how deep my crowfeet are. I am now comfortable with them and trying to gracefully age. Preparing my mindset for the few more decades I may have. To live purposefully and with some kind of meaning. As we get older the past is seen much clearer than the future (that is what makes us wiser as we age) so I go back and tell a story. A personal story.  I am just one birthday shy from living a half-century, Which takes me back 24 years ago when I turned 25. I remember marking my birthday in the middle of the night with a crescent moon over the horizon in the middle of a 53 km hike to St Gabriel Church at Kulubie. Here is the story of why I was there and why I did that hike.  My mother had a difficult pregnancy when I was conceived, she at least had one miscarriage before I was born and she was not feeling great about the pregnanc...
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Photographing Music

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  I think making and appreciating music is one of the important characteristics to be human. Every society and community in the world makes and appreciates music. Most cultures use it as a way to express themself as an individual or collectively as a clan, tribe, race, etc whatever a group of people wants to categorize themself.  Capturing moments of people creating music in my pictures is important because I am able to freeze the moment of an artistic expression. Photos are static and music is dynamic but they can still reflect the dynamics of sound rhythms you find in music. Photos might not be able to capture the sound of a horn instrument but they can capture the energy and intensity of the artist blowing the horn. That is what I look for when I take a picture of a musician on stage.  They are thousands and thousands of amateur and professional concert photographers in the world who specialize in photographing musicians on stage. Some are hired to take pictures to rec...
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View from My Window

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 The first picture is a sunrise as seen from a window from the place I use to live in Addis Ababa in 2015. The second picture is a sunset at the Puget Sound a view from my apartment window in Lynnwood WA in 2020. 
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Central Vegetable Market of Addis Ababa

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  The central vegetable and fish market of Addis known in Amharic name Atkilt Tera is a vegetable and fruit whole sell market that used to be located in the heart of the city. It is a place where fresh produce comes from almost all corners of Ethiopia to be resold to small traders who in turn sell in small local markets that local juice bars and restaurants buy from. Some individuals with big families also come to buy in bulk to save money. For a reason, I don't know fish is sold in this market. It might be because some Orthodox Christance eats fish during lent where they abstain from meat and dairy products. It makes sense to have all items needed for the lent season in one place.  The fresh produce is collected from farmers from all over Ethiopia by merchants who travel to collect the harvest and sell it to another bigger merchant who sells it to whole sells in the capital.  The same product might be sold and bought multiple times before it reaches the city. The chain i...
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