BIOGRAPHY

Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher's lifelong commitment to photographing the vanishing rituals and customs of tribal African cultures culminates in their monumental masterwork, AFRICAN CEREMONIES. Ten years in the making, this definitive work contains nearly 850 full-color photographs covering dozens of ceremonies that span the human life cycle: from birth and initiations, through courtship and marriage, royal coronations, seasonal rituals and healing exorcisms, to death. Following publication of the book, the authors received the United Nations Award of Excellence for their vision and understanding of the role of cultural traditions in the pursuit of peace in the world, the London Royal Geographical Society's Rearton Medal for recording ethnography and ritual, and the French Biarritz Photography Festival's best book of the year.

CAROL BECKWITH
Carol Beckwith was born in the United States and educated at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She has been cited by United Press International as foremost among photographers who have recorded the cultures of the Far East, Pacific, and Africa. She is the author of three previous books on African cultures, all published by Abrams. Her first, Maasai, won the prestigious Annisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations; her second, Nomads of Niger, was based on her three-year experience living with the Wodaabe nomads, and her third, African Ark, with Angela Fisher, is a study of the peoples and cultures of the Horn of Africa.

ANGELA FISHER
Angela Fisher was born in Australia and educated at Adelaide University. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Africa Adorned (Abrams), a 14-year study of traditional African jewelry and body decoration covering the entire continent of Africa. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and the subject of a National Geographic 34-page cover story. Her second book, African Ark, with Carol Beckwith, received the Institute of Human Origins prize, The Golden Hand of Lucy, and the Annisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations. A jewelry designer as well, Fisher has exhibited her jewelry and photographs throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa.