Ellen Goldblatt Photography

Guizhou

In Guizhou we captured the smiling faces and elaborate adornments of a disappearing culture in rural China. Each day we would wind through 2000-year-old rice terraces carved into the mountainsides to arrive at remote villages. The villagers awaited us with welcome ceremonies that have not changed in generations – playing bamboo flutes and offering rice wine. Then they would dance to drums and flutes. Each tribe’s women wear unique, intricately hand-embroidered outfits with sparkling silver headdresses and jewelry which emits a metallic melody in sync with their footsteps. The people we were privileged to meet and photograph may be the last generation to follow their traditional ways.