African Twilight

Carol Beckwith was born in the United States in 1945 and educated at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts in painting and photography. In 1974, she decided to make Africa her working base so she could live within the cultures that inspired her photography and painting.

Born in 1947 and educated in Australia, Angela Fisher graduated with a degree in Social Science from Adelaide University. After working with the Aborigines in Australia, Fisher moved to Kenya in 1970.

Together, Beckwith and Fisher embarked upon a study of the peoples and cultures of the Horn of Africa, and published their photography in a series of books: African Ark (1990), their two-volume landmark African Ceremonies (1999), and Faces of Africa (2004). Beckwith and Fisher exhibit internationally and lecture widely at prestigious venues. Their magazine credits include National Geographic, Natural History, African Art, the Observer Magazine, Time, Life, Vogue, Marie Claire, and Elle.

"For decades, photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have explored remote communities in Africa, documenting sacred initiations, courtship rituals, shamanic mask dancing and jubilant creative works. Their stunning new two-volume book set, African Twilight, captures these vivid and fleeting rites." New York Post

"Fisher and Beckwith s photographs are hauntingly beautiful, often very moving and always poignant, because they are visual reminders of the power still evident in many African cultures. Much has been lost but what is left is to be cherished.
Financial Times

"Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher spent the past four decades crisscrossing the African continent, traveling more than 300,000 miles in 48 countries. Their mission: photograph traditional societies disappearing into modern life. The pair came away with more than half a million images of ceremonies and rituals that mark birth, coming of age, the changing of the seasons, marriage, worship and death, as well as the lush garments, jewelry and artwork that go along with them. The photographs were taken in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Madagascar and other countries. 'We got it just in time,' Fisher said of the rituals and ceremonies captured in their photographs. 'If we started now, we would have never been able to do it.'  
The Los Angeles Times
 
"Beckwith and Fisher have gathered together an almost overwhelming collection to document the ceremonies of various remote communities. The first volume of their compendium both celebrates and contextualizes the various traditions and rights of many groups as they perform rituals of adulthood, relationships of kinship and affection, and the cycle of the seasons that shape their lives.
Musee Magazine

"The best Christmas books for travelers (2018)... No continent is urbanising faster than Africa. The rush to the towns is a theme for