The Maasai are an ethnic group of semi-nomadic people populating southern Kenya and northern Tanzania - these photographs were taken in northern Tanzania.

Traditionally the Maasai are pastoral people herding cows, goats and sheep - often tended by the young boys.

Usually the Maasai wear brightly coloured pieces of cloth - called shuka - although the boys wear black robes following their emorata or circumcision as a rite of passage towards becoming a warrior. The eunoto coming of age ceremony is celebrated with the adumu or "jumping dance."

Piercing and stretching of earlobes is common among the Maasai, as is shaving of the head. Brightly coloured beaded ornaments are worn in the ear, around the neck, wrists and ankles.

The small circular houses are made from a structural framework of wooden poles, plastered with a mixture of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and ash. The village itself is then encircled by a thorny fence for safety.