Portraits of Shamans from Around the World

Baruch Osorno, from Mexico

The Festival du Chamanisme, or Shamanism Festival, is an annual event in Genac, France that brings together shamans from around the world. Photographer Flore-Aël Surun photographed shamans from all over the world at the festival in France earlier this year. Surun, who is from France, said she observed as the shamans showed their respective rituals to one another. "(One shaman) will show how they get entranced and how they make their healing (rituals), so the shaman from the other country can see," she said. "It's like everyone learns about the culture of the other one." There is by no means just one definition or description of what it means to be a shaman, but Surun said the shamans she met were connected in their efforts to keep shamanic traditions alive, as well as in their common messages of peace and hope. Read more.