No Strangers
Ancient Wisdom in a Modern World
Exhibit
Nov 17, 2012 - Feb 24, 2013

no strangers: ancient wisdom in a modern world was a group show about the wonder of culture and the plight of indigenous people throughout the world. The exhibit was guest curated by esteemed anthropologist, author and photographer Wade Davis.

no strangers explored the ways cultures express a shared humanity and navigate the circle of life. It posed a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive?

The themes explored in the exhibit included: The Circle of Life, Our Shared Origins, Ancient Wisdom, Sacred Geography, Endangered, Globalization, Ritual & Passages, Beauty, Quest for Spirit and Joy of Culture.

Exhibit images presented cultures such as the Tibetan Buddhists of Nepal and their 2,500-year-old traditions; the last rainforest nomads who struggle to survive in Borneo; Ethiopian tribes who participate in bull-jumping as a ritual of tribal membership and manhood; and the Lakota in South Dakota who continue their spiritual ceremonies such as Sun Dances and the use of sweat lodges. no strangers celebrated our diverse and sometimes unfamiliar world.

no strangers: Ancient Wisdom in a Modern World, was also featured at Kaneko, Omaha, NE and at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland.

Bringing your family? Download our Family Activity guide here or ask for one at the front desk.

Share

Featured Photographs

  • Sahara desert, Niger A guide plots his route through the weave of sand dunes that reach across the Sahara Desert, where the harsh environment has shaped the beliefs of those whose lives it affects.
    © Chris Rainier
  • Deloun Highlands, Olgii Province, Outer Mongolia Khoda Bergen, a young Kazakh shepherd, is being trained to hunt with his uncle’s hunting eagle.
    © Hamid Sardar-Afkhami
  • Sornuk Valley, Hovsgol Province, Outer Mongolia A Duhalar child falls asleep on a white reindeer as her mother milks the herd nearby.
    © Hamid Sardar-Afkhami
  • Hovsgol Taiga, Mongolia Women heading into a valley to round up the reindeer herds for the evening.
    © Hamid Sardar-Afkhami
  • Olgii Province, Mongolia A hunter and his eagle astride his white horse.
    © Hamid Sardar-Afkhami
  • Indus River, Mohenjo Daro, Pakistan On the Indus river, bird hunters employ a technique that has been practiced for 5,000 years, according to archaeological records. They tie a living heron to a hoop, and then, wearing masks made from bird skins, submerge themselves to their necks in the water. Wiggling their heads to mimic swimming birds, they attract their prey and grab the wild birds as they land on the water.
    Randy Olson
  • Lhasa, Tibet A Tibetan woman in the Barkhor, the sacred heart of the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Though recognized as a World Heritage site by the United Nations, much of the Barkhor has been demolished by the Chinese government over the last 15 years.
    © Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos
  • Haridwar, India A young child dressed as the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, often depicted in the color blue, asks for money at a religious festival in Haridwar, India.
    © Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos
  • Henan Province, China Young monks train at the Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province, China. The physical strength and dexterity displayed by the monks is remarkable, as is their serenity.
    © Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos
  • Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia In the hands of Danilo Villafaña, a political leader of the Arhuacos, is a poporo, a gourd containing lime used to potentiate hayu, or coca, their most sacred plant. The conical hats worn by Arhuaco men represent the snowfields of the sacred peaks.
    © Wade Davis
  • Rio Piraparaná, Northwest Amazon, Colombia To the Barasana, a corona of oropendola feathers really is the sun, each yellow plume a ray.
    © Wade Davis
  • Niger At the annual Geerewol festival, Wodaabe male charm dancers from Niger perform the competitive Yaake dance. The men lighten their skin with yellow powder, accentuate the length of their noses with a line of pigment and brighten their eyes and teeth with kohl. The men change their facial expressions every few seconds, emphasizing their beautiful teeth and eyes. The winner, in the middle, displays his charisma by holding one eye still while rolling the other from side to side, making him irresistible to the female judges.
    © Beckwith/Fisher
  • Oglala, South Dakota Stanley Good Voice Elk is a Heyoka (clown dancer) and a dreamer of the Thunder People. His Heyoka name is Wakinyan Hoksila (Wakeeya Hokshila) which means Thunder Boy, or Iktomni Hoksila, Spider Boy. He burns sage, prays and prepares for a coming kettle dance to thank the thunderbeings (thunderstorms) as they leave for the summer.
    © Aaron Huey
  • Anguruk area, Highlands, Irian Jaya, New Guinea Two Yali warriors with traditional battle penis sheaths and rattan skirts.
    © Chris Rainier
  • Highlands, NW Irian Jaya, New Guinea Four men wear pandanus-leaf rain capes, for protection in a rainstorm.
    © Chris Rainier
  • Rajasthan, India A young woman enjoys time with her family after the monsoons.
    Steve McCurry
  • Quizhou, China Toughened by a lifetime of fieldwork, the hands of an elderly woman provide loving care for her grandson, who wears a traditional hat adorned in silver. With so many young adults working as migrant laborers, obliged to spend much of their time away in distant cities, the Dong have little choice but to leave childrearing in the hands of the elderly, creating in effect a culture without mothers or fathers.
    Lynn Johnson
  • Arunachal Pradesh State, India Sunita, age 3, wears her future dowry, beads inherited through her mother’s lineage. Her family speaks Koro Aka, one of hundreds of languages unique to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Many are on the verge of extinction. One wonders whether young Sunita will still be able to speak her mother tongue by the time she marries and these beads pass to the family of her husband.
    Lynn Johnson
  • Timbuktu, Mali A Tuareg man reads the Koran in a mosque. In Timbuktu there remains a repository of thousands of ancient manuscripts, dating to a time when the city rivaled Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo as one of the great centers of Islamic culture and learning.
    Chris Rainier
  • Mentawai Islands, Indonesia A tattooed man is identified by traditional tattoos from his homeland, the Mentawai Islands.
    Chris Rainier
  • Loryra, South Omo, Ethopia A Dassanech man tending to his fields along the Omo River. A hydroelectric company has plans to construct a massive dam that will inundate much of the Omo Valley, forcibly displacing tribal societies that have lived there for generations.
    Brent Stirton
  • Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada An Inuit hunter, Jayko Apak, waits for seals on an ice floe. The Inuit depend on ice for their survival, and it inspires the very essence of their character and culture. In much of the Arctic, ice once formed in September and remained solid until July. Now it comes in November and is gone by March. The ice is melting, and with it, quite possibly, a way of life.
    Gordon Wiltsie
  • Central highlands of Papua New Guinea A man and woman share an intimate moment during a courtship ritual in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea.
    Timothy Allen
  • Near Lake Chad, Niger Among the Wodaabe, pastoral nomads of the sub-Sahara of Niger, charm and beauty are the most desirable character traits of both men and women. Here four women with traditional facial tattoos watch men dancing at the annual Geerewol festival.
    Timothy Allen
  • Ha’apai Islands, Tonga Longo Paea Moala gathers pandanus leaves after soaking them in the ocean for days to soften and lighten the color. The leaves are dried in the sun for two to three days and used to weave different types of mats and clothing.
    Amy Toensing
  • Timbuktu, Mali The Sankore Mosque, one of three Islamic monuments in Timbuktu listed by the United Nations as World Heritage sites, is currently threatened by a civil war in Mali. The conflict has pitted the nomadic Tuareg of the north against the Bambara and other tribes that control the reins of power in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
    Brent Stirton

Stories Behind the Photographs

  • In Northern Mongolia, there exists a sacred alliance between people, ancestor spirits and reindeer.
    Hamid Sardar-Afkhami

    Hamid Sardar-Afkhami

    View profile

Featured Photographers

 
  • Chris Rainier

    Chris Rainier

    Photographer Chris Rainier is a master at creating powerful images that document the anthropological story of indigenous cultures whose ways are under threat.

  • Chris Johns

    Chris Johns

    As executive vice president and group editorial director of National Geographic and editor in chief of National Geographic magazine, Chris Johns oversees the Society’s core digital and print content.

  • Lynn Johnson

    Lynn Johnson

    Lynn Johnson is known for her intense and sensitive work, dividing her time between assignments for National Geographic and various foundations.

  • Randy Olson

    Randy Olson

    Stories that have become most important to Randy Olson involve cultures or environments that are under threat, usually from some form of commercial consumption.

  • Wade Davis

    Wade Davis

    An Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, Wade Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.”

  • Hamid Sardar-Afkhami

    Hamid Sardar-Afkhami

    Hamid Sardar-Afkhami is a writer, photographer and award-winning filmmaker based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Paris, France.

  • Steve McCurry

    Steve McCurry

    For over 30 years, Steve McCurry has been a one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography, with scores of magazine and book covers, over a dozen books and numerous exhibitions around the world to his name.

  • Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher

    Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher

    Thirty-five years ago, American-born Carol Beckwith and Australian Angela Fisher met in Kenya and began a relationship with the African continent, journeying over 270,000 miles, through 40 countries and recording 150 African cultures.

Iris Nights Presenters

 
  • Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher

    Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher

    Thirty-five years ago, American-born Carol Beckwith and Australian Angela Fisher met in Kenya and began a relationship with the African continent, journeying over 270,000 miles, through 40 countries and recording 150 African cultures.

  • Chris Rainier

    Chris Rainier

    Photographer Chris Rainier is a master at creating powerful images that document the anthropological story of indigenous cultures whose ways are under threat.

  • Alison Wright

    Alison Wright

    Alison Wright, a New York-based documentary photographer, has spent her career capturing the universal human spirit through her photographs and writing.

  • James Whitlow Delano

    James Whitlow Delano

    James Whitlow Delano has lived in Asia for two decades. His work has appeared in magazines and photo festivals on five continents from Visa Pour L’Image, Rencontres D’Arles to Noorderlicht.

  • Phyllis Galembo

    Phyllis Galembo

    For over two decades, Phyllis Galembo has documented cultural and religious traditions in Africa and the African Diaspora.

  • David Hiser

    David Hiser

    David Hiser is an editorial photographer and photography educator whose work has been published in over 100 National Geographic books and magazines, as well as many other international publications.

  • Jeroen Toirkens

    Jeroen Toirkens

    Jeroen Toirkens has been working as a freelance photographer since 1995. He focuses particularly on social documentary photography and ‘slow journalism’ projects.

  • Dana Gluckstein

    Dana Gluckstein

    During her 25-year career, Dana Gluckstein has photographed iconic figures from Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev to Muhammad Ali and Tony Curtis, and produced award-winning advertising campaigns for clients such as Apple and Toyota.

  • Bonnie Folkins

    Bonnie Folkins

    Bonnie Folkins is an accomplished artist with over 50 solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Portugal, as well as hundreds of paintings in permanent collections all over North America.

  • Aaron Huey

    Aaron Huey

    Aaron Huey is a photojournalist who has shot 25 features for the National Geographic magazines.

  • Randy Olson

    Randy Olson

    Stories that have become most important to Randy Olson involve cultures or environments that are under threat, usually from some form of commercial consumption.

  • Wade Davis

    Wade Davis

    An Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, Wade Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.”

  • Caroline Bennett

    Caroline Bennett

    Photojournalist Caroline Bennett strives for a balance in her work that is grounded in ethics, uniquely creative and founded in truth and the dignity of the people represented.

Slideshow Night Photographers

 
  • Not pictured

    Bjoern Lauen

    Bjoern Lauen has been involved in photography for the last 20 years.

  • Brent Lewin

    Brent Lewin

    His work has largely focused on the struggle to preserve traditional cultural identity in the face of globalization.

  • Budi Dharmawan

    Budi Dharmawan

    Budi N D Dharmawan is an independent documentary photographer in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, who is interested in socual and cultural issues.

  • Carlos Villalon

    Carlos Villalon

    Since 2006, Carlos Villalon has been photographing in the Darién Gap, the frontier between Colombia and Panama, where the Pan American highway disappears and gives way to a network of rivers, forests and swamps.

  • Dani Planas Labad

    Dani Planas Labad

    Dani Planas Labad is a traveller who loves photography or maybe a photographer who loves to travel.

  • Jan C. Schlegel

    Jan C. Schlegel

    Jan C Schlegel was born in the Black Forest of Germany. He discovered his passion for photography at the age of 14.

  • Kiliii Fish

    Kiliii Fish

    Kiliii Fish photographs alternative cultures that embody adventure, art and independence for clients from REI to Alaska Native Heritage Center.

  • Marieke ten Wolde

    Marieke ten Wolde

    Marieke ten Wolde is a Dutch freelance documentary photographer.

  • Mathieu Young

    Mathieu Young

    Mathieu Young is a commercial and reportage photographer based in Los Angeles.

  • Not pictured

    Matilde Gattoni

    Matilde Gattoni is an Italian award winning photographer. After studying History at the Universite’ des Sciences Humaines in Strasbourg, France, she decided to follow her passion for visual arts becoming a photographer.

  • Matt Black

    Matt Black

    Matt Black’s work has explored the connections between migration, poverty, agriculture and the environment in his native rural California and in southern Mexico.

  • Monica Denevan

    Monica Denevan

    Every time Monica Denevan travels to Burma she is struck by the meditative beauty of the landscape, the sensory chaos of the cities, and the quiet elegance of the people.

  • Philipp Engelhorn

    Philipp Engelhorn

    Born in the Black Forest of southern Germany, Photographer Philipp Engelhorn worked as a photographers assistant in New York City for 6 years before relocating to Hong Kong in 2002.

  • Not pictured

    Piers Calvert

    Piers Calvert is an English portrait and social documentary photographer who divides his time between London and Bogotá.

  • Piper Mackay

    Piper Mackay

    Piper Mackay’s work is primarily based on the African continent, taking her to remote locations, living cross culturally in the villages and environments she is documenting.

  • Not pictured

    Sophie Zenon

    Historian and anthropologist researcher, french photographer Sophie Zenon was born in 1965 in Normandy. She has been travelling across Asia for more than ten years now.

  • Terri Gold

    Terri Gold

    Terri Gold is an award winning photographer known for her poetic infrared imagery of celebrations from the remote corners of the world.

  • Warren Clarke

    Warren Clarke

    Warren Clarke has worked as a photojournalist for the past 25 Years.

You May Also Like

 
  • Lecture
    Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher : African Ceremonies: Documenting a Vanishing World

    Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher : African Ceremonies: Documenting a Vanishing World

    Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher discuss their journies through Africa and their work documenting rituals and rites of passage from birth to death.
  • Lecture
    Alison Wright: Face to Face, Portraits of the Human Spirit

    Alison Wright: Face to Face, Portraits of the Human Spirit

    Alison Wright presents images excerpted from her book, Face to Face, Portraits of the Human Spirit, discussing the indomitable spirit that lives within us all.
  • Lecture
    Wade Davis: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

    Wade Davis: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

    Wade Davis discusses his extensive career as an anthropologist, author, photographer and filmmaker.
  • Lecture
    Caroline Bennett: Words. Pictures. Action!

    Caroline Bennett: Words. Pictures. Action!

    Caroline Bennett discusses her use of photography to shed light on social justice, environmental threats and the human condition.
  • Lecture
    David Hiser: Nomads of the Dawn: The Penan of the Borneo Rainforest

    David Hiser: Nomads of the Dawn: The Penan of the Borneo Rainforest

    Photographer David Hiser shares his images of the Penan hunter-gathers in the deep forests of Borneo.
  • Lecture
    Jeroen Toirkens: NomadsLife

    Jeroen Toirkens: NomadsLife

    Jeroen Toirkens talks about the extraordinary encounters he had with nomadic families and the hardships he endured to reach the most remote places on Earth.
  • Lecture
    Aaron Huey: Seven Years on Pine Ridge: The evolution of a story from photojournalism to street art and beyond

    Aaron Huey: Seven Years on Pine Ridge: The evolution of a story from photojournalism to street art and beyond

    Aaron Huey looks at the evolution of a story from superficial journalism to activism, and beyond his own imagery towards a collaborative Community Storytelling project.
  • Lecture
    Bonnie Folkins: Riding with the Eagle Hunters

    Bonnie Folkins: Riding with the Eagle Hunters

    Bonnie Folkins' lecture will focus on the rich cultural heritage, unique customs and dress of Buyan-Olgii, nestled in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains bordering China, Kazakhstan and Russia.
  • Lecture
    Chris Rainier: Cultures on the Edge

    Chris Rainier: Cultures on the Edge

    Chris Rainier discusses his visual exploration of traditional cultures living on the edge of change in a modern world.
  • Lecture
    James Whitlow Delano: Malaysia: The People of the Rainforest

    James Whitlow Delano: Malaysia: The People of the Rainforest

    James Whitlow Delano discusses how two indigenous Malaysian peoples — the Batek and the Penan — have lost much of their rainforest homelands due to local logging and palm oil plantations.
  • Lecture
    Dana Gluckstein: Portraiture for Social Change

    Dana Gluckstein: Portraiture for Social Change

    Dana Gluckstein discusses her portraits of indigenous peoples and her process of infusing each image with an essential dignity.
  • Lecture
    Randy Olson: The Stories in our Genes

    Randy Olson: The Stories in our Genes

    Randy Olson talks about photographing environments that are under threat and shows how many cultures share common ground.