Enduring Spirit

Renowned photographer Phil Borges’s collection of 80 hand-toned portraits of indigenous and tribal people around the world is a quietly beautiful testament to the strength and inherent dignity of the human spirit. Borges focuses on individuals upholding their cultural traditions in countries from Ethiopia and Kenya to Tibet, and from Mexico to Indonesia. The book is published in association with Amnesty International to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document adopted by the United Nations in 1948 that outlines fundamental freedoms for all people.

With his photographs and accompanying captions, Borges bridges his subjects’ words and ours, offering a compelling yet unsentimental portrait of their homelands, their dreams, and the close family and community relationships that sustain them. In her introduction, Isabel Allende reflects on the importance of mutual respect for individuals different from ourselves-people who, like those captured by Borge’s lens, “possess profound spiritual resources, natural wisdom, and knowledge of their physical surrounding that we have lost.”