3rd Place - Peru: Rodrigo Abd, Brazil Tembe Portraits

The Tembe indigenous people of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for generations have painted their bodies for rites of passage, weddings and to symbolize that they’re ready for war.

They use the black dye extracted from the Jenipapo tree to mark the moment when the young reach adulthood and daub themselves in the red dye from the urucum seeds to prepare for battle. They have been contemplating the skies since ancestral times, and the designs on their skins include stars, half-moons and suns. Sometimes, they are geometrical or take the shape of butterflies or the paws of jaguars that roam the jungle.