Tribal Portraits - Shapero Rare Books

13. VOSSION, Louis.
Bongo tribe, Sudan.
[c.1882]. Three albumen prints. Fair tonal range and in good
condition, pasted on original card, captions in manuscript.
Dimensions: 155 by 110mm. (6.5 by 4.5 inches).
Louis Vossion, 1877-1955, a French diplomat
who undertook postings to Sudan, Pacific, India.
His interest in photography is suggested to be
both personal, and professional in its reflection
of diplomatic duties in remote areas. These three
photographs are a series taken in the same location
in Khartoum, Sudan.
The larger image shows a portrait of a girl from the
Bongo ethnic group. The Bongo were one of the
smaller groups of the White Nile region. The girl
photographed is part of an ancient dance troupe,
which had performed after the main meal with
important members of the tribe. She is pictured
wearing frayed leather garments and an amulet
hung on a long, leather cord around her neck.
Bottom left shows a portrait of Fadl-el- Kerim,
an Arab woman and Aicha, a woman from the
mountains of Djebel. They are part of the Nouba
ethnic group, consisting of different peoples
inhabiting the south of Sudan’s Kordofan province.
The image in the bottom right shows a group of
five woman of varied ethnicity, who were slaves
belonging to Ibrahim Effendi Khalil, leader of the
Copte colony of Khartoum.
ref: 78130 £3,250
Bernard J Shapero Rare Books
Tribal Portraits
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