African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer [Hardcover]

Mirella Ricciardi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2001

"In her diary of her years in Africa, Ricciardi collects memories of places, people, and experiences in words and in pictures exuding joy, beauty, pain, and even horror. This great photographer (Vanishing Africa; Vanishing Amazon) presents an intimate account of Africa to the reader...with such sincerity that it may be experienced first-hand, unadulterated....Through stories and commentaries as well as pictures, the people emerge full of life and emotions, the landscape flows as the stage for their lives, and the reader gets a subtle lesson in history. Anyone interested in African adventure and travel should at least peruse this work...recommended for both public and academic libraries...."--Library Journal. "Mirella Ricciardi('s)...visceral approach shows in this collection of photographs that depict a wide range of subjects, including wildlife, people, landscapes and war....chronicles a life spent in Africa from the 1920s to the present."--Publishers Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In her diary of her years in Africa, Ricciardi collects memories of places, people, and experiences in words and in pictures exuding joy, beauty, pain, and even horror. This great photographer (Vanishing Africa; Vanishing Amazon) presents an intimate account of Africa to the reader and viewer with such sincerity that it may be experienced first-hand, unadulterated. The book centers on East Africa, only occasionally veering into other parts of the continent. Through stories and commentaries as well as pictures, the people emerge full of life and emotions, the landscape flows as the stage for their lives, and the reader gets a subtle lesson in history. Anyone interested in African adventure and travel should at least peruse this work once. Unlike Ricciardi, Turner (Pete Turner Photographs) allows the camera to do all the talking through 140 images capturing the outrageous natural beauty, simple humanity, and intriguing past of Africa. Turner lives not just by the power of his lenses; he composes with the intuition of a painter and the empathy of an anthropologist. The resulting images display a depth of color, imagery, and perspective that can only come with commitment to a mission and an affinity for the scenes and people being photographed. The simplicity of indigenous folks and the vivacity and range of the colors displayed in clothing, buildings, ornaments, objects, landscape, and wildlife transform this volume into a splendid work of art. Turner's pictures speak in a way that words often cannot. His book is recommended for all public libraries, while Ricciardi's is recommended for both public and academic libraries.DEdward K. Owusu-Ansah, Murray State Univ. Lib., KY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Born to Franco-Italian parents in a palatial house on the banks of lake Naivasha in Kenya, Mirella Ricciardi had an idyllic upbringing with her brother and sister Oria who later married the African anthropologist, Ian Douglas-Hamilton. A photographer from her teens she quickly became a highly acclaimed magazine photographer, much in demand from anything from war reporting to fashion photography.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cassell; First Edition edition (June 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304354015
• ISBN-13: 978-0304354016
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 10.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,550,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving Look into Africa's Fast-Disappearing Past, August 8, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer (Hardcover)

This book contains images of modest nudity, including nursing mothers and children, that would probably earn this book an "R" rating if it were a motion picture.

Having known of Ms. Mirella Ricciardi's work as a photographer in Africa, I expected this book to be the typical photography book. What I found instead was far more interesting and rewarding. The book combines brief essays about her life in Africa with captioned photographs of her family and friends, and of the scenes she visited, studied, and photographed. Extending from a privileged childhood in what was then colonial British East Africa to recently in Kenya and neighboring nations, you see the collapse of a fantasy-like way of life, the rise of a troubled new one, vanishing wilderness, and the reflections of an intensely self-critical woman. If you are like me, you will be moved by what you see and read.

First, you will be impressed by Ms. Ricciardi's frankness. "I was a bad mother, a discontented wife and a frustrated photographer." She blames herself for the death of her older daughter, Marina, at thirty-six. "To this day, I am convinced this tragic event was my punishment." Personally, I think she is too hard on herself. Her story shows a warm heart and an eye for beauty that have enriched all those who have seen her work. I hope she finds self-forgiveness in the future.

Her mother was quite remarkable, as well. Coming from an influential and wealthy French family, she studied sculpture with Auguste Rodin and lived life as an artist in Paris before meeting the author's father, who was an exile from Italy. Relying on her mother's wealth, the couple soon set up a dream-like existence on a vast estate in Africa based in a "vast pink Italian villa" they built there near Lake Naivasha.

Ms. Ricciardi grew up with great wealth, hunting and enjoying the wilderness, and appreciating the native Africans. Later, she learned how to be a photographer while working with her future husband, and produced her well-known photographic work, Vanishing Africa. You will find many examples of that book as well as the details of how it was shot. Married to this adventuresome man, you get a sense of their time together as well as their discontent. As part of this, Ms. Ricciardi recounts her years with a young black lover, and how they handled the social challenges this presented in the class conscious society. Her two daughters were raised in an unself-conscious way with African children, often cavorting together nude as many young children do. You will enjoy seeing these scenes of carefree youth. Ms. Ricciardi's love of nature is matched by her love of the African people, and you will especially enjoy her images of the Maasai.

Moving forward in time, you see photographs of white Kenyans who fought the Mau-Mau, farmed and studied wildlife, the destruction that war brought to Africans, and the retreating wilderness. I especially enjoyed her profiles of people who have found a continued life in Africa whose family roots go back to colonial days. Ms. Caroline Roumegeure was especially interesting to me, with her background as the daughter of a Maasai warrior and a French woman in a family with 6 wives and 26 other children. She seemed to blend the best of both cultures together. Ms. Ricciardi eventually became estranged from Africa and has left it.

The photography captures breath-taking beauty that will stun you with its mystical appeal. You will feel like you are looking at something that is beyond your own understanding, but which will beckon you forward. Ms. Ricciardi's openness to the people, land, and animals will become your own, and you will be the better for it.

After you finish contemplating this deep and self-critical view of another way of life, I suggest that you think about where you are divided from other people and nature in your community. How can you reach out to bridge the gaps in a loving way?

Share your love with all around!

5.0 out of 5 stars In one word: Wonderful!, September 25, 2001

By 

Sarah Wood "Pro-life, patriot, activist" (Bandon, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer (Hardcover)

This was bought as a gift, my dear friend who is also my mom had this on her wish list and I bought it for her birthday.
I didn't really know what to expect of the book, since it was not I who wished for it.
When it came, I was completely delighted with it. Not only is it a beautiful, big, coffee-table size volume, but the photographs inside are wonderful! Something else--the text of the book is written in a font that appears to have been written by hand, straight out of the explorers journal. A nice touch when accompanied by these wonderful photos.
A beautiful book, indeed and the price is very fair, in my opinion.

It makes a great gift, too! :-)

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking through Mirella Ricciardi's Eyes, March 1, 2004

By 

"lessea" (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer (Hardcover)

This is something of a `summing it all up' book for this photographer of Africa. With four books and an entire lifetime behind her, she is looking back over the path of her days and trying to clarify for herself what her relationship with the land of her birth has become. "I am a child of Africa," she begins by saying, and yet as we wander through the pages of her life it is clear that it is never so simple as that.

The journey that Ricciardi takes us on is made up of long passages of text and an equal abundance of beautiful photographs. This was my first introduction to this talented photographer, and some of her work took my breath away. The photographs each have descriptions and comments written along side them, and I ended up reading these before working through the sections of text.

Ricciardi's life has been vibrant and is fascinating to read about, though her tone is somewhat melancholy. She is looking back on the Africa that was, the Africa of her youth that has disappeared. She is also looking at it through her `white man's eyes', and realizing that although she may be rooted in the land she has always been a foreigner.

The photographs moved me and Ricciardi's words challenged me. As a white woman who loved Africa she has in interesting view point, caught between what her people have done to Africa and what Africa has done for her. Sorrow and pain and regret are unavoidable when it comes to the Africa of today, but they are bound up with incredible beauty. This book doesn't so much show us the heart of Africa, but the heart of a woman who has been effected forever by the two faces of this land.

Although Ricciardi writes eloquently about Africa and shares herself and her deepest thoughts with the reader in a personal, searching way, it is her photographs that tell her story best. She has captured both the last days of the Africa she knew and the beginning of its new life, in this collection of some of her best and favorite work. A beautiful book.