The new book, Painted Bodies of Africa by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher explores the art of using the skin as a canvas, a practice performed to attract the opposite sex, differentiate oneself from the enemy, and access the spirit world.
Following the international masterpiece Africa Adorned, Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have focused on the traditions of body painting spanning the vastly unique cultures of the African continent. Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith met in Kenya 35 years ago and joined forces to make their acclaimed images covering 150 African cultures across 270,000 miles. These explorers have learned the secrets of Africa firsthand from the people they have lived with, photographing each group meticulously, from their body adornment to their rituals.
Featured are portraits of the richly colored, detailed, and exquisite body paintings of the Surma, Karo, Maasai, Himba, and Hamar peoples, among others. Drawing from expeditions in the field and firsthand experiences with African peoples and cultures over the past thirty years and with more than 250 spectacular photographs, this is the definitive work on the expressiveness and imagination of African cultural painting of the human body.
Via: Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher, Amazon and National Geographic
