Tribal Portraits - Shapero Rare Books

Introduction
Tribal Portraits is a celebration of African culture
and its peoples captured by western and African
photographers. Most of the photographs in the
exhibition are very rare: some have not been on the
open market for decades, while others are possibly
unique. This is also, as far as we are aware, the first
selling show devoted to the history of photography
in Africa by western and African photographers
covering the last one-hundred and fifty years.
Examples of iconic images by renowned
photographers include Irving Penn’s Dahomey
Girls (Item 103), George Rodger’s Dinkas (Item
15), Leni Riefenstahl‘s Nuba series (Item 18) and
Casimir Zagourski’s Congo (Item 5). These vintage
photographic portraits are juxtaposed with
contemporary African photographers Malick Sidibé
and Seydou Keita. In addition to these famous names
are the works of Hugo Bernatzik and Pierre Verger
both of whom took some of the most important
and beautiful photographs of Africa during the midtwentieth
century.
Exhibiting vintage and contemporary prints by
western and African photographers is an ambitious
concept. Tribal Portraits is about showing this body
of photographic portraiture as art. Photographs taken
in 1856 by Felix Moulin and others from the early
nineteenth century were intended as historical and
documentary images. They have survived decades
and shown in this new and exciting context, next to
twentieth century and contemporary imagery from
the African Continent, they survive as works of art.
Roland Belgrave
Sophie Elletson