Challenging cliches.Dogon: People of the Cliffs (Imago imago /ima·go/ (i-ma´go) pl. ima´goes, ima´gines [L.] 1. the adult or definitive form of an insect. 2. a usually idealized, unconscious mental image of a key person in one's early life. Mundi series) Introduction by Genevieve Calame-Griaule, photographs by Agnes Pataux 5 Continents Editions, September 2003 $29.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 8-874-39055-6 The mere simplicity and elegance of this book is a tribute to the people whose story it captures. To keep the focus on the photographs, a minimum of prose is used on the book flaps to identify its creators and in the Introduction by Genevieve Calame-Griaule, who has written several books on African oral literature. In a few pages, she reverently rev·er·ent adj. Marked by, feeling, or expressing reverence. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rever details the spiritual history of his ancient, animist an·i·mism n. 1. The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena. 2. The belief in the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or separate from bodies. 3. culture of cliff dwellers whose very name alludes to their powers of survival. Then the starkly penetrating, unflinching eyes of the Dogon people stare at us from razor-sharp, black-and-white prints, as they must have gazed at Agnes Pataux, the trusted white storyteller with the camera. Most of her photographs are of the people: an engaging child, a smiling elder of a young mother breast-feeding breast-feeding /breast-feed·ing/ (brest´fed?ing) nursing; the feeding of an infant at the mother's breast. a baby. Captions are also minimal, just a name, maybe a word or two, so as not to detract from the images. Other photographs capture their pueblolike villages of the moonscape moon·scape n. 1. A view or picture of the surface of the moon. 2. A desolate landscape. [moon + (land)scape. of a land in Mali that the Dogon have called home since their ancestors sought the high ground long ago to escape warring neighbors. More familiar images of the much-studied Dogon conducting ceremonies of even carrying out their work are deliberately absent. "Cliched images of women pounding, blacksmiths forging and healers healing are banished," writes Calame-Griaule. It forces us to look at the individuals for who they are, barring the possibility of judging them for what they are doing, as one might in some stereotypical treatments of African cultures. That seems to be what the photographer has intended. Pataux, who has shown her work in France, Italy and Ireland, is the author of the well-received Ireland: On the Edge of Europe, also from 5 Continents, an Italian publisher of fine art books. She became enchanted en·chant tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants 1. To cast a spell over; bewitch. 2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. by Africa when her family moved to Senegal decades ago so her parents could teach and study art. Angela P. Dodson, executive editor of Black Issues Book Review, collects art, including African pieces. |
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