WASHIGNTON DC – Here is Carol Beckwith sitting in a chair, a Moroso M’Afrique woven piece from the Shadowy series that Tord Boontje and others designed using traditional African weaving techniques and Senegalese craftsmen.
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher were in DC to celebrate: On the following day, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art announced a promised gift of the “African Ceremonies” collection, which features archival materials documenting Beckwith and Fisher’s work across more than 150 cultural groups in 35 African countries. The scale is hard to overstate. Their archive (not all of which is at the Smithsonian) comprises over 500,000 photographs, hundreds of hours of film, and more than 200 illustrated and annotated journals representing 150 African cultures. Another portion of their archive has been given to a new museum in the city of Arusha in Tanzania, fifty miles Southwest of Mount Kilimanjaro. They have traveled more than 270,000 miles together. Their two-volume African Ceremonies won the United Nations Award for Excellence and was honored by Kofi Annan in 1999.
Day 6,035 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
Looking back exactly 15 years to a portrait in Beijing. Day 556 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
