George Rodger Portrait of a Latuka warrior dressed for a ceremony wearing a brass helmet decorated with ostrich breast feathers and crane quills. Kordofan state, Southern Sudan. 1949.
“A founding member of Ma
(...) gnum Photos, George Rodger covered stories from all over the world, but his enduring passion was Africa. Early in the Second World War, Rodger covered the Blitz for Life magazine — leading to the struggle of the Allies in North Africa.
In 1947, having photographed many horrors of war — from the jungle campaigns in Burma to the liberation of the concentration camp in Belsen — Rodger returned to Africa and began a two-year overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town.
During his travels Rodger gained unprecedented access to the Nuba and Latuka people of Southern Sudan, documenting daily life as well as rituals. The best known works were his powerful black and white images of the Nuba Wrestlers of Kordofan.
This photograph represents a comparatively rare image taken in colour during the same period: one of the photographer’s earliest in the nation, with the people that would become a recurring subject for him over the decades that followed.”
– Jon Rodger, Estate of George Rodger © George Rodger | Magnum Photos
