This photo essay, the third in a series (The Artful Steppe, Through a Persian Looking-Glass), explores the richly symbolic art and thought of Ethiopia, where longstanding Christian, Muslim, and other traditions continue to resonate. Its structure and themes were inspired by the multivalent national flag, whose three bands of red, yellow, and green signify at once the rainbow, the Holy Trinity, the unity of people, church, and state, and patriotism, peace, and fertility. The photographs that follow present sets of triads, progressing in iconographic complexity from those in neutral lights and darks to red, yellow, green, and blue images in monochromatic groups that culminate in a full spectrum of emblems.
Above, left to right: Shrine, Mt. Entoto, with tricolor pendants warding off evil spirits; exterior icon, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa; fruit sellers, Dire Dawa.