Bernatzik. Africa

In 1925, Austrian ethnographer and photographer Hugo A. Bernatzik traveled to Egypt photographing its people, architecture, and antiquities. He returned to Egypt in 1927, traveling through the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to the Belgian Congo and finally to the west coast of Africa, documenting the inhabitants and their world. His remarkable photographs predate the work of George Rodgers and Leni Riefenstahl. The essence of Africa is captured in these remarkable images of dance sequences, rituals, festivals, spears, shields, and swirling dust.

Kevin Conru is the coauthor of Bernatzik: South Pacific, and he started the Tribal Art and Antiquities departments at Bonhams. Klaus-Jochem Krüger is a collector and expert on African art. He is the author of Mains de Maîres. Margarett Loke is the author of The World As It Was and a photography critic for The New York Times. She lives in New York City.