8787 of the Nile region that appeared in his major illustrated work The Nile (1964) are featured, including his experimental images of interior spaces and tombs with flash bulb photography and his use of moonlight for artistic exterior lighting (fig. 10).10 Brightest Africa: Early Color Photography in Africa Elisofon was more than simply a documentary photographer. As an artist who painted watercolors, he had a fundamental understanding of color and its psychological effects. He often experimented with color technology, including camera filters and lighting, to evoke emotions or moods in his photography and filmmaking.11 “Good artists take what they like from reality and discard the rest … and filters are to a photographer what glazes are to a painter,”12 he once remarked. In Africa, Elisofon pioneered in the use of color film and filters, striving to accurately represent African skin tones and the natural beauty of the continent. These early color images and their artistic effects appear on a large color monitor in the installation as a continuous slide show that provides visitors with spectacular views of his travels on the continent in the 1950s and 1960s (figs. 11 and 12). In 1951, Elisofon traveled to Albert National Park in the Congo and became the first photographer to capture in color the Ruwenzori Mountains in neighboring Rwanda—the famed “Mountains of the Moon” from nineteenth-century exploration narratives. It was an arduous trip that involved climbing 15,500 feet to Marguerite Glacier. Calling it the “nine worst days of my life,”13 Elisofon succeeded in taking beautiful Kodachrome slides of the crew’s ascent despite tropical rains, muddy trails, damaged camera equipment, poorly outfitted porters, cold weather, and an avalanche that almost killed two members of the expedition (fig. 13). His otherworldly color images of yellow and orange mosses and spiked lobelia plants amid the foggy mist at 12,000 feet were published as double-page spreads in LIFE.14 Elisofon’s work as a documentary photographer also finds a niche in Africa ReViewed. His connections with the print media provided a privileged position from which to witness the rapid economic, political, and social changes in Africa. In addition, his credentials with LIFE secured unprecedented access to some of the most important African leaders of the day. Elisofon’s intimate portraits of African leaders, artists, and writers helped create a sense of humanity and familiarity. In 1959, he proposed a major feature story on Nigeria to LIFE’s editors in the wake of the country’s independence from Great Britain in January 1960. In the months leading up to the elec- FIG. 11 (top): Rainbow, Lake Kivu region, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph by Eliot Elisofon, 1970. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, EEPA EECL 192907. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. FIG. 12 (above): Waterfall on the Lofoi River, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph by Eliot Elisofon, 1972. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, EEPA EECL 19230. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
CoverT71_FR.qxd_CoverF Vuvi
To see the actual publication please follow the link above