Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher

Courtesy of Ellen and Larry Sosnow

Over the course of 35 years, photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith have amassed a treasure trove comprising equal parts photography and anthropology. As remarkable as the oeuvre is for its raw aesthetic power, it reveals ceremonies and rituals of Africa’s tribes that, with the rapid pace of change on the continent, gives the work fresh urgency. Even as the pair continues to find new cultures to document, they estimate that about 40 percent of the rites and ceremonies they have shot have already disappeared. Beckwith and Fisher have traveled more than 270,000 miles together in pursuit of their images. While both artists have published books individually, their greatest work was created together.

Beckwith and Fisher’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world and they have had comprehensive exhibitions at such institutions as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Geographic Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.They received the Award of Excellence from the United Nations Society of Writers and Artists “for vision and understanding of the role of cultural traditions in the pursuit of world peace,” and were specially honored by Kofi Annan in 1999. They have also been awarded the distinguished Lifetime Award by WINGS. They have lectured widely at prestigious venues such as the American Museum of Natural History, The Explorers Club, The Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, and the Royal Geographical Society. Their magazine credits include major features in National Geographic, The New York Times, Time, Vogue, and LIFE.