Phaidon Club
Sign up for special offers and rewards
George Rodger: Village of the Nubas
A unique and highly influential photographic documentation of African life.
Text by George Rodger
Editions:
Price: USD$19.95
200 pointsThis edition is temporarily out of stock
- The first English language version of one of the classics of photographic literature, Village of the Nubas was originally published in France in 1955
- Taken in 1949, George Rodger's photographs of the Nuba tribe in the Sudan are a unique and highly influential documentation of African life
- A compelling, diary-sized book that documents the Nubas' rituals and way of life
- After experiencing the atrocities of Belsen, Rodger became determined to find a world in which universal values prevailed and went in search of a society that had not been tainted by Western 'civilization'
- Hardback
- English
- 178 x 131 mm, 7 x 5 1/8 in
- 132 pp
- ISBN-13: 9780714838403
- ISBN-10: 0714838403
- 39 Duotone Images
In 1949 the Englishman George Rodger, one of the founding members of the Magnum photo agency, learned of the Nuba tribe while travelling in the Kordofan region of the Sudan. The Nubas were a people living just as their ancestors had lived - centuries before. Remarkably, he was granted permission by the Sudanese government not only to spend time with the tribe, but to be the first ever Westerner to photograph its rituals and way of life.
In 1955, Rodger's 'Nubas' photographs were published in France as Le Village de Noubas, a diary-like account in words and pictures of his journey through Kordofan. A limited number of copies were produced and the book became an instant classic. Phaidon celebrates Rodger's most famous work with the first ever English language version, in a facsimile edition of this famous book.
'This facsimile edition, the size of an ordinary novel, tells the story of Rodger's great African journey and how he came to know the Nuba people. It combines great travel writing with some of the best known travel photography of our era. It's a wonderful little book.' (British Journal of Photography)
'One of the classics of photographic literature … a remarkable anthropological study cum travel book, small in format, yet perfectly formed.' (Art Newspaper)
'This classic collection of photographic images, accompanied by Rodger's honed text, is a stunning testament to a way of life long since vanished in Africa.' (Good Book Guide)
Co-founder of the prestigious Magnum agency, George Rodger (1908-95) was a war correspondent with Life from 1939 to 1945. Traumatized by the experience of war, he embarked on a 28, 000-mile journey to Africa and the Middle East, concentrating on the rituals and ways of life in close relationship with nature.