Athi-Mara Magadi / Photography

Athi-Mara spent the years from 1980 to 1990 in Kenya, East Africa. It took the first five years to make the contacts and inroads that allowed her to live with the Maasai deep in the interior of Maasailand. In intermittent stretches in this harsh and remote area of the country she lived a life that few have shared adjusting to the hardships of their tribal ways and relishing every moment of her rarified time there. She considers those years the richest of her life, to date, a privilege for which she is deeply grateful. From several days to several months at a time she lived their life, their way, documenting their customs and ceremony and developing a deep communication without a common language, but for greetings, and expressions of gratitude. Occasionally, Swahili, the National language of Kenya would play a small role with some older clansmen, but very few of the warrior phase with whom she spent the preponderance of her time spoke this tongue meant to unite the twenty-eight or more tribal languages of the country. Few white women in the last century have been accepted to the degree Athi-Mara was, sharing time, life experience and a level of intimacy that she achieved in an unobtrusive fashion. The relationships that were developed during those years continue today and will be presented in a photographic coffee table book with short stories of her life among the Maasai; a document of her journey, redolent with the color and texture of that specific and amazing area of the country and of the people she came to love.