THK Photography, at 52 Waterkant Street, will host an exhibition of photographic works by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, titled African Twilight: Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies, from Thursday November 1, at 6pm.
American-born Carol Beckwith and Australian Angela Fisher met over 40 years ago, beginning a photographic partnership that has seen them journey over 300 000 miles on the African continent – through 48 countries and recording 150 African cultures.
African Twilight will be the first solo show presented by the pair on the African continent and will include images from their travels to Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon – documenting rituals and ceremonies from some of the most remote corners of Africa.
Now, nearly two decades after their book African Ceremonies, African Twilight: The Vanishing Cultures and Ceremonies of the African Continent – a two-volume, 864-page book featuring 750 colour photographs – completes the journey, covering disappearing rituals and ceremonies.
The images capture the vast cultural diversity of Africa and span the human life cycle from birth to death, covering unique initiation ceremonies into adulthood, colourful rituals of courtship and marriage, the splendour of power and leadership in Royal Kingdoms, seasonal rites of survival, diverse religious beliefs, healing practices and, finally, rituals of death and the role of the afterworld.
The exhibition will consist of 27 photographs and 10 short video films and will run from Thursday November 1 until Saturday February 2, at THK Photography Gallery. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Friday, 10am until 6pm, and Saturdays, from 10am until 3pm. For more information, call 076 367 6387.