What do you think?
Rate this book
Africa
""If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure."" -Kevin Brownlow, from the introduction When she was in her early sixties, Leni Riefenstahl began traveling frequently to the African continent, where she has worked on various film and photography projects over the last half century. Her favorite destination was in Sudan, where she lived with and photographed the Nuba tribespeople, learning their language and becoming their friend. The Nuba were a loving and peaceful people who welcomed Riefenstahl as one of their own. Her images of the Nuba, as well as of the Dinka, Shilluk, Masai, and other tribes, are gathered in this monumental book. Riefenstahl remembers her experiences in Africa as the happiest moments in her life. Her beautiful, skilled photographs represent a landmark in the extraordinary career of the 20th century's most unforgettable artistic pioneer. * Interview by Kevin Brownlow * Extensive bibliography and biography section
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Leni Riefenstahl
26 books23 followersHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German pronunciation: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendship with Adolf Hitler thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but released without any charges.
Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame, as well as infamy. Although she directed only eight films, just two of which received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl was widely known all her life. The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most modern commentators but many film histories cite the aesthetics as outstanding.
The Economist wrote that Triumph of the Will "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century".
In the 1970s Riefenstahl published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba. She was active up until her death and also published marine life stills and released the marine-based film Impressionen unter Wasser in 2002.
After her death, the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an "acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques". Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin noted, "Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema". The BBC said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time".
Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame, as well as infamy. Although she directed only eight films, just two of which received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl was widely known all her life. The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most modern commentators but many film histories cite the aesthetics as outstanding.
The Economist wrote that Triumph of the Will "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century".
In the 1970s Riefenstahl published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba. She was active up until her death and also published marine life stills and released the marine-based film Impressionen unter Wasser in 2002.
After her death, the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an "acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques". Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin noted, "Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema". The BBC said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 6, 2011
As I embark upon this review, I have a vague but insistent premonition that its contents may prove offensive to some readers. I have a nervous flurry of inappropriate and unsophisticated thoughts about Riefenstahl's Africa in my head right now, and I can't quite account for how they might manifest themselves here.
I did not 'read' this book, technically speaking. It is a compilation of Leni Riefenstahl's photographs of certain primitive tribes in Africa (in the value-neutral sense of primitive, meaning 'of or relating to the earliest age or period' [Merriam-Webster]). The book does contain text, but I didn't read any of it, as is generally my modus operandi with art books. I looked at the pictures, as a casual page turner does. I do not claim any technical knowledge of photography or social-anthropological knowledge of Africa. This must serve as both a disclaimer and a preemptive apology.
Mainly these are photographs of nude Africans, covered with mud or ornamentation. I must say that the men (true to stereotype) uniformly brandished large penises. I became preoccupied with finding a small penis among their ranks, as a means of comforting myself to some limited extent, but I don't think I succeeded in finding even one. This became sort of a crude Where's Waldo with black penises. And then I reflected back upon myself, to consider the particular sociocultural significance of large penises in Western culture versus the sheer unadorned facticity of them in these tribes. When one walks around all day with that appendage dangling there with the same prosaic indifference as, say, an earlobe, its size (except when it deviates to an extreme degree) is probably a matter of course—one detail among many. But also, there is the possibility that this conjecture is merely another rationalization. Perhaps large penises are valued indigenously by our species (and others too), and perhaps John Holmes would have been a celebrity in any age.
At any rate, these photographs (as the preceding paragraph clearly shows) brought to mind many questions about what is essentially human versus what is culturally learned or adapted. I know, I know... it's very unfashionable to speak of 'essences' or 'essential natures' these days because science and reason regard these notions as fanciful mythology, like religion and unicorns. The sustaining biology is all that is truly essential, in other words, and it doesn't even begin to answer the question of whether these tribesmen and tribeswoman are reflective in the same way that so-called advanced civilizations are. That question has an ethnocentric ring to many ears—but only based on the (ethnocentric) notion that introspection is preferable to any other mode of thought. So: gotcha! Anyway, what I'm saying is that these pictures made me think a lot.
With all the thinking going on, it was difficult to focus on the photos in a purely aesthetic sense. When you're wondering why none of the tribespeople have any pubic hair at all, you don't have time to focus on the composition. The breasts of the women were generally remarkable. We have grown so accustomed either to surreal augmented breasts or to floppy fat women breasts that are losing the dismally-fought war with gravity. Some of these breasts are simply fantastical! And I don't mean that in a sexualized way (or not only in that way). Their pertness and nobility nearly makes one bemoan the fate of breasts today. Nearly.
Leni Riefenstahl was of course a Nazi in the 1930s and 1940s. This is problematic for many people. She photographed these tribes quite a while after World War II. (Yes, she survived the war and its retributions and died as recently as 2003 at the age of 101.) Although it is understandable (to me anyway) not to want to view or support the art of a women who was a Nazi propagandist par excellence, there is always the counterargument: that art is art and should be interpreted and appreciated without respect to the more unsavory aspects of the artist's life. After her minor obsession with the primitives of Africa receded a bit, she took up underwater photography. Let me be completely honest here: the National Geographic variety of photography doesn't interest me all that much -- and this and her marine life photography certainly qualify as such -- but nevertheless these are striking photographs. She was accused of fetishizing the latent sexuality of her tribal subjects to an unsettling degree, but the accusation tells us much more about the accusers than anyone else. In another vein, her photography has been decried as the propaganda of a fascist aesthetic ideal. (Can you hear the grindings of the axes?) But that's clearly a bullshitty attempt to infer her intentions on the basis of her past.
If this book were by anyone but Leni Riefenstahl, I probably would never have purchased it. But since it is by Leni Riefenstahl, I'm glad I did. And I will leave you with that incredibly ambiguous endorsement of this book.
I did not 'read' this book, technically speaking. It is a compilation of Leni Riefenstahl's photographs of certain primitive tribes in Africa (in the value-neutral sense of primitive, meaning 'of or relating to the earliest age or period' [Merriam-Webster]). The book does contain text, but I didn't read any of it, as is generally my modus operandi with art books. I looked at the pictures, as a casual page turner does. I do not claim any technical knowledge of photography or social-anthropological knowledge of Africa. This must serve as both a disclaimer and a preemptive apology.
Mainly these are photographs of nude Africans, covered with mud or ornamentation. I must say that the men (true to stereotype) uniformly brandished large penises. I became preoccupied with finding a small penis among their ranks, as a means of comforting myself to some limited extent, but I don't think I succeeded in finding even one. This became sort of a crude Where's Waldo with black penises. And then I reflected back upon myself, to consider the particular sociocultural significance of large penises in Western culture versus the sheer unadorned facticity of them in these tribes. When one walks around all day with that appendage dangling there with the same prosaic indifference as, say, an earlobe, its size (except when it deviates to an extreme degree) is probably a matter of course—one detail among many. But also, there is the possibility that this conjecture is merely another rationalization. Perhaps large penises are valued indigenously by our species (and others too), and perhaps John Holmes would have been a celebrity in any age.
At any rate, these photographs (as the preceding paragraph clearly shows) brought to mind many questions about what is essentially human versus what is culturally learned or adapted. I know, I know... it's very unfashionable to speak of 'essences' or 'essential natures' these days because science and reason regard these notions as fanciful mythology, like religion and unicorns. The sustaining biology is all that is truly essential, in other words, and it doesn't even begin to answer the question of whether these tribesmen and tribeswoman are reflective in the same way that so-called advanced civilizations are. That question has an ethnocentric ring to many ears—but only based on the (ethnocentric) notion that introspection is preferable to any other mode of thought. So: gotcha! Anyway, what I'm saying is that these pictures made me think a lot.
With all the thinking going on, it was difficult to focus on the photos in a purely aesthetic sense. When you're wondering why none of the tribespeople have any pubic hair at all, you don't have time to focus on the composition. The breasts of the women were generally remarkable. We have grown so accustomed either to surreal augmented breasts or to floppy fat women breasts that are losing the dismally-fought war with gravity. Some of these breasts are simply fantastical! And I don't mean that in a sexualized way (or not only in that way). Their pertness and nobility nearly makes one bemoan the fate of breasts today. Nearly.
Leni Riefenstahl was of course a Nazi in the 1930s and 1940s. This is problematic for many people. She photographed these tribes quite a while after World War II. (Yes, she survived the war and its retributions and died as recently as 2003 at the age of 101.) Although it is understandable (to me anyway) not to want to view or support the art of a women who was a Nazi propagandist par excellence, there is always the counterargument: that art is art and should be interpreted and appreciated without respect to the more unsavory aspects of the artist's life. After her minor obsession with the primitives of Africa receded a bit, she took up underwater photography. Let me be completely honest here: the National Geographic variety of photography doesn't interest me all that much -- and this and her marine life photography certainly qualify as such -- but nevertheless these are striking photographs. She was accused of fetishizing the latent sexuality of her tribal subjects to an unsettling degree, but the accusation tells us much more about the accusers than anyone else. In another vein, her photography has been decried as the propaganda of a fascist aesthetic ideal. (Can you hear the grindings of the axes?) But that's clearly a bullshitty attempt to infer her intentions on the basis of her past.
If this book were by anyone but Leni Riefenstahl, I probably would never have purchased it. But since it is by Leni Riefenstahl, I'm glad I did. And I will leave you with that incredibly ambiguous endorsement of this book.
June 23, 2016
La gente africana es la más bella. Riefenstahl sabe cómo capturarla en su mejor expresión. Taschen sólo imprime con justicia.
El único pero (y detalle gracioso) puede ser el culto al buen salvaje que promueve. Riefenstahl, como ex-nazi, busca su redención fotografiando africanos, pero africanos en estado salvaje: ella misma narra cómo huye de aquellos que se occidentalizan ¡y comienzan a cobrar por fotografías!
El único pero (y detalle gracioso) puede ser el culto al buen salvaje que promueve. Riefenstahl, como ex-nazi, busca su redención fotografiando africanos, pero africanos en estado salvaje: ella misma narra cómo huye de aquellos que se occidentalizan ¡y comienzan a cobrar por fotografías!
March 14, 2022
Léase la crítica de Susan Sontag a estas fotografías de Leni Riefensthal para una aproximación adecuada a este material. Quien busque mera "belleza africana" sólo se estará quedando en un nivel superficial.
Si esta obra es única y potente se debe, muy seguramente, a una perspectiva estetica éticamente controvertida, de claras raíces fascistas. Riefensthal sólo se interesa por los cuerpos, la juventud, el comunitarismo, el heroísmo masculino, la entrega al dolor...genera un mito. Ese enfoque se relaciona con su trabajo propagandístico durante el III Reich.
Una obra, repito, única. Maravillosa y terrible por la fascinación seductora que rezuma. Inscribirle una crítica moral y distanciamiento se hace necesario.
Si esta obra es única y potente se debe, muy seguramente, a una perspectiva estetica éticamente controvertida, de claras raíces fascistas. Riefensthal sólo se interesa por los cuerpos, la juventud, el comunitarismo, el heroísmo masculino, la entrega al dolor...genera un mito. Ese enfoque se relaciona con su trabajo propagandístico durante el III Reich.
Una obra, repito, única. Maravillosa y terrible por la fascinación seductora que rezuma. Inscribirle una crítica moral y distanciamiento se hace necesario.
April 24, 2024
In the text: A romanticized portrait of the ecstasy of racial purity from one of the foremost experts on the topic!
Also, exquisite photographs.
Also, exquisite photographs.
June 24, 2026
Leni Riefenstahl, the person, is exceedingly interesting, as was her life as a creator (dancer, actor, film director/producer, photojournalist, documentarian, etc). The shadow of Nazi Germany and her role in Hitler’s propaganda machine is of little focus in this volume, documenting what became a second half of life passion for Leni—Africa, specifically the “primitive” Nuba tribes in the Sudan. The photographs are as amazing as her tenacity, but it is her observations of the changes to a once happy, kind, and carefree culture that stuck me most.
Money and religion brought jealousy and shame to a people who had never exhibited either. As a person deconstructing my childhood faith and questioning the unquestionable, I can’t help but reflect on the high human cost of “civilization.” Not only did she capture a world so foreign to the modern mind, but she captured the destruction of a beautiful culture in the naive and stubborn name of progress.
This large book of gorgeous photographs has given me even larger ideas to ponder. Shame of nudity, specifically, along with the effect money and consumerism have on the collective human mind.
Money and religion brought jealousy and shame to a people who had never exhibited either. As a person deconstructing my childhood faith and questioning the unquestionable, I can’t help but reflect on the high human cost of “civilization.” Not only did she capture a world so foreign to the modern mind, but she captured the destruction of a beautiful culture in the naive and stubborn name of progress.
This large book of gorgeous photographs has given me even larger ideas to ponder. Shame of nudity, specifically, along with the effect money and consumerism have on the collective human mind.
July 22, 2010
Gorgeous images of beautiful and fearless people made by a truly awful person. I was lucky enough to get a copy of this edition at an erroneously low price. They have, at the Taschen store in SoHo, a new super-luxe edition, two feet by one and change, bound in the skin of a manta-ray. Leni Riefenstahl would have approved.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews