In a small village inhabited by the Bwa people, also called the scarred Bwa because of the scars on their faces and bodies, near Boni, Burkina Faso, I photographed women whose future was forecast when they were two or three years old. A village elder would scar their faces with a razor, marking their tribe and village as well as the number and sex of the children they would have. The scars supposedly foretell the good and bad things that will happen during their lives. Geometrically patterned over the entire face and seen to beautify the women who had them (these were not universal markings, and not all female villagers had them), they were beautiful and strange. These markings reminded me of Americans who proudly wear their tattoos, identifying themselves as part of a group. I photographed this woman with her child standing in the doorway and a few minutes later returned to see her standing in profile with the darkness behind her and the light falling on her face. I took perhaps two or three shots, trying to bracket due to the difficulties in exposure with dark skin.