Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Emanuel, I feel much the same way about explorer/photographers such as Fleming and Maillart too. For anyone interested there is currently an exhibition of Thesiger's work on the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq on at Laycock Abbey, Fox Talbot's home. Haven't got to see it yet. Peter Dzwig Emanuel Lowi wrote: > Peter Dzwig wrote: > >>I took Daniel's suggestion and went along to the >>NPG. The exhibition, though >>small, is absolutely fascinating. If you are over >>here while it is running >>(until end October) and looking for a way to spend >>an hour or two in London then >>I recommend it to you. >> >>For the record Freya Stark's Leica is a III, serial >>number 230857. > > > Both of these women have been big inspirations to me, > Stark (a professional traveller) perhaps more than > Bell (a major political player). I've spent many > years retracing their journeys. > > Together with men like T. E. Lawrence and Wilfred > Thesiger, they produced some extraordinary works > documenting in words and pictures the rural and tribal > peoples of the Middle East. > > Bell's "The Desert and the Sown" is a good read. A > fine biography of her, "Desert Queen," was published > just a few years ago and I recommend it. > > Stark wrote many books. The best are about southern > Yemen. I have used her stories as my guides when > travelling through that region, which has hardly > changed since when she was there. > > I just missed meeting Stark at the Hotel Baron in > Aleppo (Syria) not long before she died. They say she > was lively right up to the end. I was more fortunate > to get to know Thesiger over the course of several > years, before he died just recently. He was personally > complex in many of the same ways that Riefenstahl > was/is, yet I still admire him for his pioneering > works. > > Those crazy English women (and men) who rode around > the desert with their cameras 70-80 years ago were a > bunch of extraordinary characters the likes of which I > suspect we will never see again. > > Emanuel Lowi > Montreal > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >