Late last year, New York photographer and filmmaker Olivia Wyatt traveled to Ethiopia to document the music of 13 different tribes for an upcoming film planned for distribution by Sublime Frequencies. Along with tons of videotape, Wyatt also took along a Polaroid camera. What follows are some of the many experiences she captured on instant film. After checking out the photos, make sure to also peep some exclusive footage from Olivia’s upcoming feature film on music in Ethiopia.

There were at least 100 camels in this field (top right) and all of them are owned by two Afar men. At night, the men sleep with their AK-47s on the ground just beyond the fence to protect their camels.

Body paint is common among tribes in the south Omo Valley region of Ethiopia, and more common among men. Some men place white paint on their legs and draw wavy lines, others mimic the patterns of animals on their body. The paint is made with white chalk, yellow mineral rock, iron ore, charcoal, and saliva.

Young Hamer girls’ bracelets serve as both baubles and musical instruments. Scars are extremely important in their culture; they denote strength and sacrifice. During a Hamer bull-jumping ceremony, where a man who is about to marry runs naked across a row of bulls, that same day unmarried female relatives of the jumper are whipped with sticks until their backs bleed, and the young women dance and sing in between.

One night I took a mini-bus 12 hours north of Addis to witness a Zar spirit possession on a hyena-invested mountain. We left at 3 a.m. from Addis Ababa. On my bus there was a Muslim woman, a catholic priest, a six-year-old boy, and other adults. I fell asleep, but awoke at 4:30 am to police men with guns at my window. Directly behind them, a mini-bus was completely turned over and the police were angry that we were traveling illegally at night, so they took us all to a tiny jail in the mountains and we were told we had to stay there until sunrise. Everyone was staring at me; they would look in my direction and whisper and laugh, or some just stared, even the police. I decided to just go and talk to the police. I asked them questions about their life and told them what New York might be like at 4 a.m. and the next thing I know, they let us go. The entire bus was chanting “forenji, forenji, forenji!” [foreigner].

Hairstyles in Ethiopia are incredibly beautiful and unique. You can sometimes determine a tribe just based on hairstyle alone. Each time I visited a new tribe, women wanted to do my hair the way they style theirs. There were always 16 hands twisting it, braiding it, or putting coppery soil and butter on it. The men in the Hamer tribe shave portions of their head, and then use clay and paint to harden other parts, while leaving balls of hair untouched in the front and back.

Hairstyles in Ethiopia are incredibly beautiful and unique. You can sometimes determine a tribe just based on hairstyle alone. Each time I visited a new tribe, women wanted to do my hair the way they style theirs. There were always 16 hands twisting it, braiding it, or putting coppery soil and butter on it. The men in the Hamer tribe shave portions of their head, and then use clay and paint to harden other parts, while leaving balls of hair untouched in the front and back.

Check out some exclusive footage from Olivia’s upcoming feature film on music in Ethiopia.

Stylist: Kristin Vincent
Assistant Stylist: Nadia Koch
Hair & Makeup: Sarah Appleby

Matteo Callegari
Shot in his studio at Hunter College, NYC

Matteo was born in Northeastern Italy, in the small town of Latisana, but high-tailed it to New York seven years ago to concentrate on his art. Matteo is being hailed as part of a resurgence of abstract painting in the Big Apple, with a chaotic feel and a grey-meets-neon color palette that echoes the NYC streets. While attending the Hunter College MFA program, Matteo debuted in the group show Forgotten in the Smile at Envoy Enterprises. In spring, his messy abstractions will be on view at London’s Hannah Barry Gallery.

Matteo Callegari wears Diesel sweater and scarf, t-shirt (available at OakNYC), Endovanera jacket, Crate jeans, Topman shoes and accessories.

Erik Lindman
Shot in his studio in Harlem

Hotshot abstract painter Erik Lindman didn’t go to grad school, but he didn’t have to. This Downtown devil has already been in several group shows, and curated a few of his own: Bring Me Back a T-shirt and House Wine, House Music, both at NYC’s V&A Gallery. Not bad for a smart-mouthed 24-year-old.

Erik wears Public School leather jacket, Diesel collared shirt and shoes, Shades of Greige t-shirt, The Cast jeans, Topman necklaces.

Ryan Schneider
Shot in his studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn

This sharp troublemaker attacks his large canvases with a wolf-like abandon: They often feature layers of paint and texture, scraped away bits, drips, and errant bits of text in provocative candy colors. It’s like being inside one of Van Gogh’s fever dreams—if Van Gogh had been a hedonistic New York aesthete with a taste for fine wine, fine women, and LSD-fueled weekends in the Hudson River Valley. Ryan has shown in Los Angeles, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, Canada, and is represented by Chelsea gallery Priska Juschka; his new show, Send Me Through, is on view there through February 20.

Ryan wears Yves St. Laurent vintage jacket, Diesel collared shirt, Shades of Greige t-shirt, Uniqlo jeans, Coco Cardenas pins, and his own shoes.

James J. Williams III
Shot at his home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

This dapper young man seems to be everywhere and know everyone. His work consists of strange scrawlings and installations of found objects that wouldn’t be out of place in a Town & Country pictorial on fallen aristocracy. His works often have dramatic, absinthe-soaked titles: “By Request, My Epitaph” and “This is a Pasttime Known as Mine vs. Yours” among them. James is represented by downtown NYC gallery Envoy.

James wears Shades of Greige jacket, Jake Muser dress shirt, Uniqlo jeans, Palladium shoes, Coco Cardenas pin, The Cast bag, and his own tie and belt.

Kelsey Henderson
Shot in her studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Kelsey is a painter specializing in lifelike portraits of alluring and beautiful young individuals in all their languid glory. A striking black-haired, blue-eyed vixen (she looks not unlike those she paints), Kelsey’s caught the eye of the rock ‘n’ roll cognoscenti—she’s painted Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha and The Kills’ Jamie Hince, and Courtney Love raves about her on Twitter. Henderson says her paintings explore the idea of the “platonic crush,” but what really elevates the work is technique, talent, and a color palette that suggests the hard, white winter light that streams through your windows after a particularly long night out.

Kelsey wears Stolen Girlfriends Club bandage leggings, Helmut Lang tuxedo jacket, C 12 t-shirt, Pixie Market bag, and belt, Coco Cardenas black rose ring, and her own boots.

Upcoming shows:
Feb. 12th, New Works by Emerging Artists in Drawing and Painting, 3rd Ward, Brooklyn; Feb.18th: This is Not an Invitation to Rape Me, Fox Gallery UPenn, Philadelphia; and a show in September at the Mahan Gallery, Columbus, OH.

Gretchen Scherer
Shot in her studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn

For her senior show at Hunter, Scherer showed paintings from the point of view of being drunk and wild at 3 a.m. in Gotham City. Recently, she’s been working in highly detailed mixed-media installations and dioramas, and exploring themes of haunted houses and ghosts. She’s lost none of that NYC edge, though—it probably helps that her night job is bartending at the downtown den of iniquity known as Happy Ending.

Gretchen wears Stolen Girlfriends Club grey bandage dress and web tights, Orphan Age black triangle cut-out jacket (available at pixiemarket.com), Marc by Marc Jacobs boots, and stylist’s own AK-47 necklace.

Laura Flook
Shot in her studio in the East Village

Laura is a mortician. Laura does not like to be touched. Laura once wore a hospital gown to the bar as a dress. She is an eccentric, wondrous creature seemingly descended from Oscar Wilde and Sylvia Plath with the clothes to match—the items she makes have a dark Victorian sensibility that have you reaching for a hearty swig of laudanum. Laura is pictured next to her designs.

Laura wears dress, pants, and gloves of her own design.