Irene Becker | Durbar Festival

Photo © Irene Becker-All Rights Reserved

I haven't posted much travel/documentary photographic work of Africa (with the exception of Ethiopia) on The Travel Photographer blog, so I'm very glad to redress this shortfall by featuring the very interesting work of Irene Becker.

One of the galleries that caught my eye was of Irene's photographs of the Grand Durbar in Argungu, Nigeria. The Durbar is an annual festival celebrated in several cities of Nigeria at the end of the Muslim festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Its highlight is a parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses, accompanied by music players, and ending at the Emir's palace.

Irene tells us that the Durbar in 2009 involved more than 500 horses, 120 camels, 1760 men and women dressed in traditional indigenous attires with resplendent colors. The Emir of Argungu led a special group of horsemen in a rich and beautiful display.

The slideshow of Irene's Durbar photographs consist of 20 still images, however there are some more on her blog. There are few photographs of this event on the internet, and most of them belong to Irene.

Irene Becker describes herself as a culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer, and is based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned a degree at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad at its Department of Music. Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits, as well as in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide. She also produces stock for Getty Images.

The Frame | Voodoo Festival

Photo © AP / Jon Gambrell-Courtesy SacBee's The Frame

The Frame, the Sacramento Bee's photo blog, features photographs of the exciting Benin's Voodoo Festival. This is certainly one festival I would have loved to attend, but it completely fell off my radar. Perhaps next year? It appears it's held every January 10th. There are also a number of travel companies that can arrange for tourists (oh, no!!) to attend the festival.

But who knows? Perhaps a future destination for one of The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions-Workshops?

Ouidah, on the Atlantic coast of Benin, is where voodoo began, and the launching point for its voyage to the Americas with the boatloads of African slaves. It is also the mecca for the spirits and gods worshipped by practitioners of Voodoo, or Vodun, a recognised religion in this former French colony in West Africa that is home to 9 million people.

According to the accompanying write up on The Frame, local banks and the post office closed as Ouidah celebrated this annual festival,; which is increasingly drawing curious foreigners. With its mix of beliefs and traditions, the Voodoo practiced here shows both a clash of cultures and the ability for ancient traditional beliefs to adapt to modern life.

Voodoo, or Orisha, as it is practiced today, originated many hundred years ago among the Yoruba people who live in the region of modern-day Togo, Benin and parts of Nigeria. Followers of voodoo believe in an unapproachable god and an array of spirits who serve as intermediaries. Slaves, forced to leave Benin's sandy shores in their millions, took such beliefs to the U.S. and the islands of the West Indies, where they spread and formed the basis of religions like Candomblé, Macumba, Santería and Umbanda.

Shannon Jensen | Imbalu

Photo © Shannon Jensen-All Rights Reserved

Here's another compelling photo essay out of Africa, titled Imbalu and is by photographer Shannon Jensen.

The ritual of circumcision amongst the Bagisu tribe of Uganda is called Imbalu, and they believe that one's voyage to manhood begins with ithat ritual, with the whole community participating in it. This involves walking around the circumcision candidates' village, visiting religious sites to appease the gods, singing and dancing to folk songs that praise these gods.

The tribal elders say the origin of the practice is mysterious, even to them. But there are various conflicting legends associated with the necessity of males having to undergo the circumcision.

Circumcision seems to have been common practice in the Arabian peninsula in the 4th millennium BCE, while the earliest historical record of circumcision comes from Egypt, dating to about 2400–2300 BCE. Circumcision was done by the Ancient Egyptians possibly for hygienic reasons, but also was part of their obsession with purity. 

It is a prominent feature in the Hebrew Bible (possibly because of the Ancient Egyptians) with over 90% of Judaism adherents having the procedure performed as a religious obligation. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an, circumcision is considered essential to Islam, and is universally performed among Muslims.

Shannon Jensen is a documentary photographer based between East Africa and Washington DC. She has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She attended the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshop and is currently featured on the Emerging Talent roster of Reportage by Getty Images. Her clients include The New York Times, Die Zeit, German GEO, Newsweek, Monocle, MSF, Oxfam and the National Geographic Society.

Jacquelyn Martin | Tribe of Ghosts

Photo © Jacquelyn Martin-All Rights Reserved

"The genetic condition known as Albinism can be a death sentence in Tanzania."

Jacquelyn Martin, a staff photojournalist with the Associated Press (Washington DC) is featuring a compelling audio slideshow on her website, titled Tribe of Ghosts.

The East African nation of Tanzania is a particularly dangerous region to be an albino. Albinism is a defect of melanin production that results in little or no color (pigment) in the skin, hair, and eyes. And in Tanzania, as in other African countries, albinos are discriminated against, and their murder has been reported. They are hunted for their flesh, a horrific result of superstitions and the desire of witch doctors to make "magic". A common belief is that albinos don't die, but vanish like ghosts.

Tanzania has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world — nearly 1 in every 1400 people as compared to about 1 in 20,000 worldwide.

Jacquelyn Martin's work has been recognized with awards from the White House News Photographers Association, NPPA, and the Women Photojournalists of Washington.

NPR has also featured Ms Martin's photographs along with an article by John Burnett, along with an audio story and her still photographs of Tanzanian albinos on ThePictureShow blog.

Frederic Vanwalleghem | Vodun

"Vodun practitioners worship a pantheon of gods and lesser deities that inhabit objects ranging from stones to waterfalls."

Here's a short video made of moving images and stills by photographer Frederic Vanwalleghem made in Ouidah (Benin)of the ancient belief system of vodun.

Despite concerted efforts of Christian missionaries, this ancient belief system still has millions of adherents along West Africa’s former Slave Coast, from Ghana to parts of Nigeria, and especially in Benin. In 1996, Benin’s democratic government officially decreed vodun a religion, and ever since, thousands have openly practiced it. It's estimated that  20 percent of the population of Benin, or about a million people, practice pure vodun.

The belief system is called vodun in Benin, vodou or voodoo in Haiti and vudu in the Dominican Republic.

Frederic Vanwalleghem is a Belgian photographer; deeply interested in African religious traditions, and especially in vodun, a topic he has researched for years. He became interested in vodun when he first traveled to Cuba and discovered santeria, the Afro-Cuban religious tradition, and was subsequently introduced its secret ceremonies in Trinidad. Later, he traveled to Nigeria and Benin, to look for the roots of diasporic traditions like santeria, condomble and vodun.

An interesting article on vodun was recently featured in The New York Times, and a full interview with Frederic Vanwalleghem was featured in The Leica Camera Blog.

Out of Eden Walk: 30 Million Footsteps

A few posts ago I suggested there were no more explorers in the mold of Richard Francis Burton.

I was wrong.

An incredible exploration trek is being planned by Paul Salopek, a writer for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, who will be walking the journey taken by early man tens of thousands of years ago.

The walk, Out of Eden, will take 30 million footsteps, over 21, 000 miles over 7 years to complete. It will start in Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and will cross the Red Sea into the Middle East, cross China, into Siberia, cross the Bering Strait into Alaska and then walk all the way down the western coasts of North and South America.

Graphic courtesy The Observer

Salopek will be taking a micro-light laptop, video and audio recording tools, since he intends to record his journey; including landscapes and voices and faces of the people he meets on the walk. He will also be taking a satellite phone through which he will be uploading his journal's recordings to his his website.

He tells The Guardian newspaper that "We will be creating a family portrait of humanity for the next seven years."

That promises to be one damn exciting journey for all of us.

Jan Schlegel: Pain & Beauty Redux

Photo © Jan C. Schlegel-All Rights Reserved

Oh, followers and readers of The Travel Photographer blog will like this!

Ethnophotography, traditional process, photographs made with a 4x5 field camera (Ebony SV45 Ti) on Kodak Tmax 400, and negatives developed in Kodak D76 Developer 1+1 dilution...then selenium toned. What's not to like?

"None of the people photographed wear special make-up or were specially dressed before the photos were taken. They were all captured in their own habitat — at the market, in the village square, or simply on the roadside." Jan Schlegel

Jan C. Schlegel is a German photographer, whose ethno-photographic work is in the tradition of Phil Borges.  In 1998, he began traveling throughout Asia and Africa with the objective of photographing diverse people groups and tribes, and has so far traveled to 61 countries and is still in pursuit of the beauty and diversity of the nations.

The quality of these photographs are just remarkable. His website claims that he succeeds in not only creating artistic photographs, but in documenting the uniqueness of his subjects...the people who posed for him. Absolutely.

And I have a lot of respect for a photographer who doesn't follow the fad of making demeaning portraits of Ethiopian tribal people wearing ridiculous ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, take a look at the magnificent jewelry of the Himba women...and don't miss the beautiful eyes of the Kalash women.

I had posted Jan's work some years ago here, but it seems he changed his website, and added much more work.

Captain Tristram Speedy: Travel Photography At Bonhams

Why would I mention Bonhams, an auction house, on The Travel Photographer's blog?

Well, it's because Bonhams is holding an auction of a rare photographic album of 180 Ethiopian images by Julia Margaret Cameron, Felice Beato and others. These images include a number of self portraits of Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy(1836-1910), a well-known English explorer and adventurer during the Victorian era, who was also known by his Amharic name 'Báshá Félíka'.

He was a fascinating character who was an Indiana Jones of his time, with a long association with India, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Born in Meerut (India), Captain Speedy was a red-haired bearded man 6'5" tall, who learned to speak Amharic, adopted Ethiopian native dress, and was photographed by Cameron in various guises such as a Bedouin chief, a Nubian chief, a Nubian warrior and much more. He was the inspiration for a number of popular books.

I am enormously interested in news like that because it merges history, Africa, Asia, adventurism, exploration and photography. Despite my abhorrence of colonialism, I consider men such as Richard Francis Burton and now, Tristram, as quintessential eccentric explorers, as orientalists and ethnologists, and as remarkable linguists with an extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures.

They just don't make men that way anymore.

For those who don't know Julia Margaret Cameron: she was a British photographer born in Calcutta, known for her portraits of celebrities of the time. Her photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875), and got her first camera when she was 48 as a gift from her daughter.

As for Felice Beato (1832-1909), he was an Italian–British photographer, and one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War.

Nicolas Lotsos: The Masai Typology

Photo © Nicolas Lotsos-All Rights Reserved

"Photography is my motive for travel."

The Masai Typology is one of the many gorgeous photo galleries of Africa by photographer Nicolas Lotsos. I'm not much of an African wildlife aficionado, but his fine art galleries of photographs of the handsome Masai, of Zanzibar, or of the African slums and townships are lovely exemplars of monochromatic imagery.

Nicolas Lotsos is  a fine art photographer (and in my view, a travel photographer as well) and a basketball agent. He co-runs a sports agency representing some of the top sports figures in Europe. He has been a photographer since he was 16 years old, and specializes in photographs of wild life and nature.

He also won an impressive number of awards, to include Gold Winner at the 2012 Grand Prix de la Photographie, Outstanding Achievement at the Spider Award 2012, the 2012 Veolia Wildlife Photographer Award, including two awards by the Travel Photographer Of The Year (TPOTY), amongst others.

A Nilotic group in East Africa, next to the Indian Ocean, the Masai society is patriarchal, and elder men decide most major matters for each group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behaviour. The Masai are monotheistic, worshipping a single deity.

Dan Kitwood: Benin Voodoo

Photo Dan Kitwood/Getty Images-Courtesy The Guardian

Can anything dispel the auguries of a Friday 13th better than a Benin Voodoo festival?

Being fascinated by such religious festivals and rituals (the more obscure the better), I was glad to have seen Dan Kitwood's gallery of a Benin Voodoo festival in The Guardian, which also led me to his website/blog on which he lays out further captivating photographs (with better resolution) of Voodoo which also has a slideshow at the bottom of the post.

As seen in the above photograph, the costumes are incredibly colorful...perhaps rivaling the Bhutanese dancers at tsechus in their elaborateness and intricacy of their embroidered designs .

In the tiny West African nation of Benin, Voodoo is and remains the state religion. Incredibly, voodoo has officially been a national religion of Benin since 1996, where more than 60% of the people are said to follow its traditions. Slaves from this corner of Africa brought the religion to the New World, most notably to Haiti.

And while Christianity and Islam in Benin are also practiced, voodoo still influences them. In the voodoo tradition, there's a supreme god, Mahu, and a number of smaller gods or spirits, with whom humans can interact.

Dan Kitwood is a UK photojournalist who, after completing a degree in Fine Art, traveled around South East Asia, Australasia and South America, which triggered a passion for photography. After two years working for the South West News he joined Getty Images in London.

Agata Pietron: War Songs (Part 1)

Here's the powerful, technically well-made and intelligent multimedia work by the talented Agata Pietron.  It's about teenagers who live in one of the most dangerous places in the world: in the two Kivus in East Democratic Republic of Congo, where war lasted for two decades. These young men and women experienced the influx of Rwandan refugees into their homeland of South and North Kivu, which caused political instability, genocide and eventually civil war.

These young people want to rebuild their lives by embracing hip-hop, rap and R&B as musicians, and take American monikers such as  Dangerous, Young Boys, B2K, Kashmal, Lille Cent, Peace Life, Victory etc. They speak in French, but the audio slideshow is subtitled in English. Excellent pacing, top notch audio...enviable resolution.

Agata Pietron is an independent photographer and journalist, currently based in Warsaw. She graduated from Cultural Studies at University of Warsaw, studied at European Academy of Photography and Academy of Film and Television. Now she works mainly on social projects. Her works has been exhibited in Poland and abroad. Her clients (among others) are: Orange, Unicef, RR Donnelley, Sotis, Lego, Natura, Lyreco, Fundacja Pomocy Dzieciom Niepełnosprawnym, Fundacja Synapsis.

She's also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop...which she attended a number of times; last of which was in Buenos Aires. She worked in the DRC; covering many social issues that put her safety at risk on more than one occasion.

A real pro. What else can I say?

John Kenny: Kenyan Portraits

Photo © John Kenny-All Rights Reserved

The Guardian newspaper in London alerted me of an exhibition opening next week of John Kenny's new portraits from Kenya.

John Kenny started a journey in 2006 that took him though many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s remotest communities. He spent hours walking, hitch-hiking and driving across African countries making photographs of people, ancient cultures and traditions.

The Guardian and the exhibition venue (3 Bedfordbury Gallery) has a selected number of these portraits, but the collection can be best seen on John Kenny's website.

He tells us that the images were taken during his second trip to the far North of Kenya in 2011. With major drought across the Samburu, Rendille and Turkana villages in the region, he wanted to to convey a little more on how climate changes are undermining traditional pastoral ways of live in East Africa.

I have featured John Kenny's work a number of times. You can the posts see here and here.

Should I go and see the exhibit at the Covent Garden gallery whilst I'm in London, I'll post my impressions.

I just noticed that John Kenny used a 10x8 format Chamonix camera for some of his work.

Dominic Nahr: Travels Through Islam

Photo © Dominic Nahr-Courtesy TIME

With good reason, I've become skeptical of mainstream Western magazines abilities or interest to present non-stereotypical (and non-judgmental) features dealing with Islam, but I found TIME International's Travel Through Islam five-part series in its Summer Journey issue, to be interesting and insightful.

In this first installment, photographer Dominic Nahr followed the footsteps of famed 14th century explorer and traveler Ibn Battuta into sub-Saharan Africa. In February 1352, Ibn Battuta set off from the city of Sijilmasa at the edge of the Sahara to journey with a camel caravan to lands far to the south.

A few years ago, I was fascinated by Ibn Battuta (whose full name is Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta), and read anything I could find about his life and his travels, to the point that I went to the New York Public Library to read some older manuscripts.

Ibn Battuta's journeys took almost thirty years and covered almost the entire known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance far surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo.

For an interesting book on Ibn Battuta and his exploits, Tim Mackintosh-Smith followed the traveler's footsteps as well, and wrote Travels With A Tangerine. Not to be confused with the fruit, Tangerine is a resident of Tangiers...as Ibn Battuta was.

Tobin Jones: Healers of Kibera

Photo © Tobin Jones-All Rights Reserved

Here is a powerful photo essay by Tobin Jones on the healers of Kibera. Kibera is a slum of the Kenyan capital, and is home to over one million people but a handful of clinics, most of which are run by charities. Religious healers associated to the Christian church claim to be healers and offer their services to solve problems from relationships to sickness to exorcising demons. While 80% of Kenya’s population is Christian, traditional beliefs and customs influence most of Kibera’s African churches, forming a quasi-Christian religion quite different from Western forms of Christianity.

The photo essay appears on the BBC News website, and I suggest you view it there as the images are larger than on Tobin's website.

"Kibera residents go to healers for a wide range of reasons that include family disputes, theft, unemployment and curses, as well as possession by the devil."

Tobin Jones is a photographer of English and American descent, and he lived much of his life on the African continent, where he was born and grew up. He graduated from McGill University, with a major in International Development, as well as minors in Economics and Political Science.

Paolo Evangelista: Stone Town (Book)

I've previously featured Paolo Evangelista's work of Zanzibar on The Travel Photographer, but he has just self-published a book of his photographs of Stone Town, the ancient city and cultural heart of Zanzibar, where little changed in the last 200 years, so I thought it would be of interest to my readers who are curious in that tiny but authentic part of Africa.

Stone Town is a 142 pages book, currently available on Blurb, and is very well designed. I think Paolo's best color photographs are those spread in a double truck, like the one of a young girl running in the rain or  the one with a women in red with a young girl in a frilly white dress. I also liked some of the quotes used by Paolo; "God made the country, and men made the town", and "God made women to be loved, not understood". You can have a preview of the book here.

The backdrop of these photographs are the narrow alleys of Stone Town, whose houses were built in the 19th century when Zanzibar was one of the most important trading centres in the Indian Ocean region. It is a place of meandering alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and impressive Arab houses.

Nick Riley: The Witch Doctor Of Tanzania

Photo © Nick Riley-All Rights Reserved

"For issues of love and business, property and health, people in Tanzania will visit a witch doctor. The job description appears to vary significantly between individuals. Some can help to find lost property, others specialise in healing the unwell, others still in raising curses on those that have wronged you."

My readers will immediately know that this photography essay is one that The Travel Photographer's blog relishes in featuring.

But first things first. Nick Riley is a UK photographer, currently working in Tanzania. His work has featured extensively in the press, including BBC Wildlife magazine, where he won photograph of the month. In June 2010 he was shortlisted for Photographer Of The Year. He worked on projects for clients across the public and corporate sectors, including the NHS and Diageo, but his passion is for documentary and wildlife photography.

The Witch Doctor is a multi-gallery photo essay, arranged in a blog format. Nick was allowed to photograph during the healing sessions conducted by a witch doctor in a poor suburb of Dar Es Salaam. In a tiny room filled with incense, and lined with various shells, leaves, carvings, coins, jars and packets of various powders. It was there that the witch doctor started her magic.

These are extremely atmospheric photographs, and are very well composed despite the difficult circumstances. Short of being there, I would have loved to hear the ambient sound from these sessions! Beautiful and rich colors...And do take the time to explore the other entries in Nick's blog. Well worth it.

It should be mentioned that although Islam orthodoxy frowns on witch doctors and other sorcery for exorcism, other sects less strict tolerate (and even encourage) such traditional ways to rid those afflicted with jinns and evil spirits.

Pete Muller: The Cattle Keepers of Southern Sudan

Photo © Pete Muller-Courtesy Time Lightbox

I wasn't planning to feature the work of Pete Muller today (the sequence of my posts are often pre-decided a week in advance), but seeing his terrific work The Violent Cattle Keepers of Southern Sudan on the wonderful Time Lightbox blog convinced me otherwise, and I rejigged the sequence.

Pete writes that these cattle keepers are members of the Dinka Rek sub-tribe, who describe themselves as a “brigade.” In this remote area of southern Sudan, there are no signs of the army or the police, and no government as such. Consequently, these men form a militia to protect themselves from marauders of other equally well-armed pastoralist groups in the area.

The moment I saw the first photograph in Pete Muller's slideshow, I thought "oh, Jehad Nga's chiaroscuro style!", and true enough, Pete graciously ends his write up by giving credit to Nga for inspiring the aesthetic of these photos.  A statement that reflects well as to Pete's character.

Pete Muller is a photographer and multimedia reporter based in Juba, Sudan. He uses images, words, audio & video to tell under reported stories. He maintains an excellent blog which also features many of these portraits.

A really excellent photographer.

The Invisible Ph t grapher: Liz Loh-Taylor

Photo © Liz Loh-Taylor-All Rights Reserved

If you haven't bookmarked the Invisible Ph t grapher Asia, I suggest you do. The Invisible Ph t grapher Asia (IPA) is not only a collective of photographers in Asia mostly involved in street photography and visual journalism, but is also a very clever brand name.

Kevin WY Lee founded the collective in early 2010, and although it's based in Singapore, it covers  Hong Kong, Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.

I've been following it for a while now, and I liked a recent interview IPA has had with Liz Loh-Taylor, a young full-time documentary photographer, based in Australia, who only entered the profession in late 2009, but who has already won awards, and important recognition.

Although Liz had joined the finance industry, she also worked with disadvantaged children and communities in Africa, and decided to document their stories through a camera. She gave up her corporate career late 2009, and committed to photography since then.

If you poke around The Invisible Ph t grapher Asia website, you'll find a section on street photography with a number of photo essays related to that style. There's also a street photography contest that is open and free to photographers of any level, and in any country of residence, but submissions must be in the street photography genre and photographed in Asia within the last 12 months.

The prize? It's a street photographer's classic. A black repainted LEICA M2 Rangefinder Camera, and a brand new Nokton 35mm F/1.4 lens.

Roger Job: Turkanas, The Last First Men

Les Premiers Derniers Homme from Reporters Magazine on Vimeo.

Roger Job is a Belgian photographer, whose work in Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Congo, Ethiopia, Kosovo, South Africa, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Somalia, US, and Zaire frequently appear in the Belgian and international press. He has also published 5 books.

Roger's Turkanas: The Last First Men started in September 2008 and ended in July 2010, and documents the impact of climate change on the Turkana pastoralists in north Kenya. A group of people who have lived for ages tending to their livestock, remote from the modern world and with a way of life of freedom, pride and in perfect harmony with nature.

The Turkana have begun to face the difficulty of accessing water points and pastures for their cattle and their way of life that has largely been intact for some 6,000 years is likely to be destroyed. Roger's photographs aim to document a way of life that is likely to disappear within a span of a generation.

The Making of The Last First Men can also be seen here. I could only find it in French, but it's more or less self-explanatory.

Incidentally, Reporters Magazine is the brainchild of Reporters, a photo agency in northern Europe, founded in 1989.

The BBC Celebrates Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger in Ethiopia 1934 (Courtesy The BBC)

For historical buffs and admirers of adventurers/explorers, here's a BBC feature that will please you.

Sir Wilfred Thesiger took nearly 40,000 photographs during his eight decades of travels throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The BBC, in commemoration of his centenary of his birth, has featured an audio slideshow of his photographs.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) narrates his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins, while he Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. 

From an article 'Gentleman Thrillseeker 'in the Independent newspaper:

Since 1930 Thesiger had documented his journeys in photographs, diaries, and letters to his family. Many of his finest photographs were taken, after 1945, in Arabia and Iraq; he took thousands more, just as fine, in the mountains of Asia, Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania. Thesiger's photographs have long been regarded as works of art in their own right; they also preserve a unique and imperishable record of vanishing tribal societies.

Thesiger was an intriguing man...to say the least. There are plenty of articles and opinions pieces about him and his life.