Vanishing Africa

This is the most magnificent book of photography that I have seen in many a year. Of course, at this writing, "Vanishing Africa" is more than two decades old, but I had never even heard of it until I chanced to watch a documentary entitled "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" on Sundance. The film contains many a revelation about its fascinating subject, but none so remarkable as Riefenstahl's reincarnation, in the 1950s, as a nature photographer. Banned, for all practical purposes, from making films, she turned her visual sense to advantage by traveling to the Sudan, where she spent twenty years photographing the Nubians and other endangered African peoples. The images that result are every bit as striking and provocative as anything in "Triumph of the Will" or "Olympia." Of equal interest is the introduction that Riefenstahl has provided for the book; her adventures in Africa were not confined to those behind the camera! Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have a friend who possesses this rare and expensive book; I now want very badly to see the underwater film that Riefenstahl, who took up scuba diving in her 70s, completed last year, the same year she marked her centenary.