By Stephen Williams

AFRICA

Photographs by Art Wolfe
Text by Jean Godall & Michelle Gilders

£30 Harvill

ISBN 1-08046-907-8

Art Wolfe has been photographing Africa for over two decades. His focus has been on Africa’s ‘natural’ world, specifically its wildlife, and the environments and peoples with which it coexists.
Unusually, this coffee-table format book, with more than 200 photographs, is based on the landscape - its spine is shorter than the width of the page. This gives emphasis to the striking cross-page panorama shots that introduce the key five chapters - Savannah, Woodland, Rainforest, Wetland and Desert.
Following Jane Goodall’s foreword which makes an impassioned plea for the importance of conservation in Africa, Michelle Gilders provides a thoughtful text. She describes the various environments and provides a summary of the particular challenges facing their ecosystems - principally, of course, the impact of man’s activities.
Some of the photographs may be familiar. At least two of the images have been used as book jacket illustrations, most recently the head of a Karo tribesman from Ethiopia used for Rysard Kapuscinsky’s book, The Shadow of the Sun - My African Life (see African Business September 2001).
Photo captions are sparse. They give the common name of the species photographed, its Latin name and the location of the photograph. This last detail reveals that the photographs are principally taken in Tanzania and Kenya’s game parks, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
At the back of the book are thumbnail reproductions of photographs with more detailed information. Along with that detailed information about the subject of each photograph are also notes on the camera used (usually a 35mm Canon EOs body), the lens, aperture setting, shutter speed and film type.
It’s fairly unusual for a photographer to give so much technical data; probably that’s less about jealously guarding professional secrets and more to do with the difficulty of keeping records in the field. However, any aspiring wild-life photographer might glean useful tips from these notes from a truly accomplished wildlife photographer.
Africa received corporate sponsorship from Gettylmages..

Dogon –

Africa’s Peoples of the Cliffs

Photographs by Stephenie Hollyman
Text by Walter E.A.van Beck

£32.00 Harry N. Abrams Inc (USA)

ISBN 0-8109-4373-5

This book is a richly illustrated celebration of the Dogon peoples of Mali, West Africa. The Dogon have for hundreds of years built their villages among the rocky outcrops at the base of the 200km long Bandiagara escarpment. For at least seven centuries their naturally defended homes held enemies and interlopers, especially slave-raiders, at bay - until the arrival of European colonialism.
Remarkable photographs from Stephanie Hollyman reveal a tightly knit, highly sophisticated culture. Quite apart from the all important work of tending food crops (principally sorghum, millet and onions) and animal husbandry, activities such as house building, iron-smithing, basket weaving and pottery are all recorded. Sacred ritual is also lovingly documented, from initiation and marriage rites to masked dances and burial customs.
Walter van Beek’s narrative is coolly executed. It’s appropriately intimate and respectful, and carries the authority of an anthropologist who has dedicated more than two decades of research while living amongst the peoples he writes about.

Africa’s Great Rift Valley

By Nigel Pavitt

£34 Harry N. Abrams Inc (USA)

ISBN 0-8109-0602-3

It’s the world’s greatest geological feature. It runs for more than 5,600km from the Red Sea to Mozambique, practically the length of Africa. It ranges from the searing heat of the deserts of its northern depression 500ft below sea level, to the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. It is probably the birthplace of mankind. It is, of course, Africa’s Great Rift Valley.
Author and photographer Nigel Pavitt has written an enthralling book based on 45 years of living and travelling throughout East Africa, first as an army officer - later as an ex-pat businessman and entrepreneur, photographer and writer. From its geological formation and the fossil evidence revealed from volcanic rocks, to the region’s rich flora and fauna and tribal life, Pavitt presents an invaluable study of the region.
Both the text, which gives a nod of acknowledgement to early pioneer European explorers, and over 200 exquisite colour photographs dealing with the length of the Great Rift, is arranged in three parts; the Abyssinian, Eastern and Western Rifts. A final chapter, really a short summary, looks to the new millennium and the huge challenges the Great Rift region, and by extension Africa, is facing.
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World Art: Africa

By Peter Stepan

£16.99 Prestel

ISBN 3-7913-2580-9

In the first of the publisher’s World Art series, Africa is surveyed from the beginnings of recorded history. Fifty masterpieces are selected, from early archeological discoveries to practically the present day, in an attempt to illustrate a pan-African artistic heritage.
Following an opening essay, four chapters encompass the continent: Central, East and Southern, West Africa and Mediterranean North Africa. Egypt is to be covered in a separate volume of the series.
From bronze masks to ornate metalwork shields; tree-bark cloth to an embroidered boubou; ivory carvings to beadwork bridal aprons; rock carvings to marriage curtains, the editor has selected a diversity of artefact dating over three millennia, even if the majority of objects are masks and standing figures.
To place these objects in context, major ethnic groups and regional affinities are explained - and to some extent the fiction of the homogeneity of “tribal styles” is also tackled by presenting examples of blended or transitional styles that defy classification.
But, as the author comments, “the abundance of forms and meanings in African Art resists categorical interpretation and continually poses a challenge to the European-American cultural circle”.
That said, the author explores possible attributes with a short essay facing full-page illustrations of each of the artefacts selected. These are drawn from major museums and private-collectors around the world.
The book’s budget price belies a beautifully presented and intelligently written work - a fine introduction to some of the greatest works of art of the continent.

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