Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher’s brilliant photo treatise “Passages: Photographs of Africa” is a must see at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. The remarkable exhibition offers dramatic eye-opening images that portray time-honored African ceremonial traditions.

Photographers Beckwith and Fisher spent over 30 years documenting the customs, rites and ceremonial practices of 150 cultures.  They’ve journeyed more than 270,000 miles by foot, camelback, dugout canoe, and four-wheel-drive vehicle to 37 countries in some of the continent's remote corners. More importantly, they’ve lived among the indigenous peoples, sharing their daily lives, and gaining access to sacred ceremonies and traditions little known to the outside world.

How do they approach a village to photograph sacred rituals?  “When we enter a village, we don’t show our cameras and we meet with the tribal chief, his wives and children,” says Carol Beckwith. “We very gradually learn about each other and tell them we come in appreciation, and that we’re not missionaries—so we don’t want to change anything. We’ll eventually start with Polaroid photos, which amazes them, then go from there, shooting un-posed photos.”

944 Magazine

Shedding Light on the Dark Continent

Written by Alex A. Kecskes

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Alex A. Kecskes has written over 1,000 published articles and blogs on a wide variety of topics. He has also written hundreds of ads, brochures, mailers, radio spots, video scripts and web pages for ad agencies and Fortune 500 firms.