Africa, vanishing

Photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have devoted 30 years and 12 books to the traditions, culture and people of Africa -- a faraway land that they have brought closer to home by teaming with the Bowers Museum for the exhibit “Passages,” currently on display.

Some 100 of their photographs on view are based on a 10-year “African Ceremonies” study in which they documented ceremonies and rituals marking transition points from birth to death. The London-based pair traveled to 36 countries, studied 150 ethnic groups and trekked more than 250,000 miles by camel, mule train, boat, four-wheel-drive and on foot.

“We adopted the lifestyle, by living in the same manner, eating the same food to befriend people whose stories we hoped to tell personally and intimately,” said Beckwith.

Their decade-long journey brought them across the vast continent to such countries as Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria and Namibia.

Mixed-media elements of videos and three-dimensional objects from the Bowers permanent collection of African artifacts -- including masks and coral jewelry -- complement the photos that are showcased in the large space previously occupied by “Terra Cotta Warriors.”

The life-size photos, measuring up to 10 feet by 12 feet, accompanied by video, give visitors the feeling of being in Africa and experiencing the ceremonies firsthand.

Coinciding with the exhibit, Beckwith and Fisher launched their newest book, “The Dinka,” which explores the fragile culture of the Sudan cattle herders in a 30-year span.

“Back in the ‘70s they were a lovely, very tall, innocent people living an idyllic lifestyle,” said Fisher. This elegant tribe became entangled in civil conflicts throughout recent years, with an estimated 2 million massacred, including the recent violence in Darfur. The once-gentle people now carry AK-47s.

The book is available only when you donate to Beckwith and Fisher’s African Ceremonies charitable foundation, which will support their coming work in Angola, Botswana, Tanzania and Cameroon, among other places.

“Forty percent of the native ceremonies we’ve witnessed over the years are no longer practiced,” said Fisher.

“We feel we were able to capture and record an important part of human history which may no longer exist in the future.”

The “Passages” exhibit originated at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This is the first West Coast showing of the exhibit.

-- Liesl Bradner

--

‘Passages’

Where: Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana

When: Through Aug. 16, 2009

Price: $12; $9 seniors, students and children 6-17; free 6 and under

Contact: (714) 567-3600, www.bowers.org

Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays