The People of Kau
Author | Leni Riefenstahl |
---|---|
Original title | Die Nuba von Kau |
Translator | J. Maxwell Brownjohn |
Illustrator | Leni Riefenstahl |
Country | United States, Germany |
Language | English (translated), German |
Genre | Illustrations |
Publisher | List (Germany) Korallengärten |
The People of Kau is the title of the 1976 English-language translation of German film director
Synopsis
This is a
Background
Between 1962 and 1977, Riefenstahl had been photographing people of different
Together with George Rodger's earlier photo essay on the Nuba and Latuka tribes, published in 1951 in National Geographic magazine,[4] Riefenstahl's photographic documents are of anthropological, ethnological, and cultural-historical importance in relation to traditional life in the Nuba mountains of these times.
Critical reception
The most well-known critical reaction to Riefenstahl's photography of the Nuba came from the American intellectual,
Academic studies, giving critical appraisals of Riefenstahl's books on the Nuba people, have been published by Alexandra Ludewig of the University of Western Australia[6] and by anthropologist James C. Faris of the University of Connecticut.[7] In his biography on Riefenstahl, the German media critic Rainer Rother gives a detailed account of her repeated visits to the Nuba people, comparing her approach to taking the photographs that seem to have started with a personal fascination of an African world, "unspoilt by civilization", up to her later carefully planned photo expeditions in order to further her fame as a photographer.[8]
Another examination of both Riefenstahl's books and of James C. Faris's criticism was undertaken as a comment on a television film, called The Nuba from the BBC “Worlds Apart” ethnographic series.
We feel guilt at the pleasure we take in their beauty and their sensuality. One reason for this is because we know that it is, to a significant extent, the forces unleashed on the world by our own civilisation that are destroying such cultures, even as we celebrate them.
— John Ryle, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
See also
- Nuba
- George Rodger
References
- ^ Leni Riefenstahl (obituary) The Times. 10 September 2003
- ^ "Leni Riefenstahl: THE NUBA 1/13". www.leni-riefenstahl.de. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- ^ Inverné, Claude (2015). "Gadalla Gubara". elnour.org. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
- ^ Schuman, Aaron (5 June 2017). "'Lost' early photographs shed light on Sudan's Nuba and Latuka tribes". CNN. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ Sontag, Susan (February 6, 1975). "Fascinating Fascism". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
- S2CID 161232895.
- ISSN 0143-9685.
- ISBN 978-1-4411-5901-4.
- ^ Ryle, John. "Invasion of the body snatchers". johnryle.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
Further reading
- George Paul Meiu: Riefenstahl on Safari. Embodied Contemplation in East Africa, in: Anthropology Today, 24/2 (2008), pp. 18–22.
- Guinevere Narraway: Control and Consumption. The Photographs of Leni Riefenstahl, in: Neil Christian Pages, Mary Rhiel, Ingeborg Majer-O’Sickey (Eds.): Riefenstahl screened. An Anthology of New Criticism, New York 2008, pp. 219–233.