Photograph by Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher
Photograph by Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher
“Through our books and lectures we tell people about Africa’s core values: respect for their elders, the benefit of growing up as part of a community, and the importance of living in harmony with nature and one’s own spirit world.”—Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith
Thirty years of work on the African continent have carried Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher across 270,000 miles and through remote corners of 40 countries in exploration of more than 150 African cultures. In the process, this team of world-renowned photographers has produced 15 widely acclaimed books and made four films about traditional Africa.
While the lifeways they document may appear timeless, these committed explorers are driven by a sense that they work against the clock. They view Africa’s traditional cultures as threatened, the ancient ways in danger of being lost in a vast melting pot of modernity. According to Fisher and Beckwith: “These unique cultures possess a wealth of knowledge that should be celebrated, shared, and honored. It is our life passion to document and create a powerful visual record of these vanishing ways of life for future generations.”
Most recently, Beckwith and Fisher have completed their latest book, Painted Bodies of Africa, exploring the fascinating and seductive art of African body painting, to be released in October 2012. Their previous book, Dinka: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan, was the fruit of a 30-year study documenting the vanishing people in war-torn Sudan. They have received numerous awards from organizations around the world for their work, including the coveted Lowell Thomas Award of the Explorers Club, given only to the world’s most distinguished explorers.
Popular Presentations
African Ceremonies: Documenting a Vanishing World
Ten years in the making, this massive two-volume book set and traveling exhibition, African Ceremonies, tells the story of the first 93 ceremonies Beckwith and Fisher covered in 26 countries. Honored by the United Nations Society of Writers, the photographers received its Award for Excellence for the books. This presentation offers the most powerful experience of the photos and the stories they tell.
Dinka: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan
This presentation is a window into the past, present, and future of an extraordinary egalitarian pastoral people, and arguably the greatest cattle keepers of the African continent.
Learn More About Angela and Carol
National Geographic News: Interview With Fisher and Beckwith
A clever feast spares the lives of photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher during a harrowing trip to Surmaland near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border.
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher share their images of a vanishing way of life in southern Sudan.
The Dinka of southern Sudan is a unique and beautiful record of Dinka life as seen through the eyes of the author/photographers, Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith.
Photographs from their book, Faces of Africa.
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