 SAHARA Atlantic to the Nile
Alain and Berny Sebe. Editions Hachette, 192pp, £18
Alain Sebe has been photographing and privately producing high quality large format picture books on the Sahara for over 20 years, covering the Tuareg, the Tassilis, rock art, Sahara from the air, etc.
With a new publisher he has brought out more general titles at lower prices, but with no reduction in quality. Last year's we got L'Image du Sahara an overview of 33 years desert travel and now SAHARA, Atlantic to the Nile is a virtual photo journey from the Western Sahara to the Nile - and it's in English too. It's virtual in as much as this is another repackaging of earlier photos along a route not actually undertaken (I could be wrong here - there is a map in the back). It's a common practise among photographers and does not undermine the result; a general Sahara picture book from the sub-Atlas Morocco to Tunisia and the Hoggar, the Tassili, Libya and Egypt.
Inside you get a fabulously rich album with text by the photographer's son, Berny. The printing and paper is as good as it gets, with some stunning images, especially from the Moula Moula aerial collection. Algeria covers a fair slice of the book, as it should, with sections on rock art to adding to the whole Saharan panorama. We do not see the best of the amazing Gilf and Jebel Uweinat though and without Mauritania, Niger and Chad it's still not the ultimate Sahara picture book I was hoping for. SAHARA does not claim to be so and I'm sure the above three countries are in the Sebe pipeline. Then, once a general 400-page collection of those three countries is published along with the ones covered in SAHARA, the ultimate Sahara coffee table book will be here.
This book is now available for a reduced price direct from Alain Sebe who produces post cards, posters calendars and other quality merchandise.
|
SAHARA
 by Jeremy Swift (Time Life International, o/p)
This is a splendidly illustrated and informative account of the geography of the Sahara, part of the otherwise seemingly lightweight "World's Wild Places" series. It includes account of the Great Explorers quests, descriptions of wildlife and geology, as well as travels with nomads. Originally published in 1975.
|
 CALL OF THE DESERT
Philippe Bourseiller, 2004 (28 x 36cm, ~444pp)
No
two ways about it, Call of the Desert is
a stonker. At around 4kg it is heavy enough
to stun a full-grown horse and is packed
with glossy, full-page portraits, close-ups
and wide-angle vistas from the Atlantic to
the Nile. All the mainstream Saharan shots
all here in one book: the culture and landscapes
of the Moors, some lovely Moroccan kasbahs,
the Niger delta as well as Ounianga and the
Ennedi and Meroe in Sudan - though not, noticeably
the rich imagery of the Gilf and Uweinat
- so falling short of being the absolutely
ultimate Saharan picture book.
And the writing isn't bad either. Rather than let the author do the talking which often results in flowery eulogies attempting to parallel the images, they've shipped in some experts who - being French (the longest-established source of Saharan scholarship) or Saharan - know better than most what they're talking about. So you get surprisingly good accounts of the geology, pastoral society and one of the best accounts of human occupation, from the 7 million year old proto-human bones found in Chad (predating those of the Rift Valley) right up to the historic period.
It has to be said, the shop copy at Stanfords London (£30) had split its spine - the book may be too heavy for its binding - even the box it was posted to me in had split open. Amazon.co.uk pictured a different cover on its website but what you get is the book as left. They are going there from just £18 (presumably from the US where it is $31 new) which makes this the best Sahara picture book bargain since Civilisation in the Sands went for a fiver.
 CALL OF THE DESERT - THE
SAHARA
Philippe
Bourseiller, 2005 - ISBN 08109 5978 X (75pp)
Just
spotted this in Stanfords for a tenner. Extracted
from the above collection (as many travel
photographers do), this is a sort of school
text book on the Sahara covering
various themes and places like Ghadames,
sand, nomads and camels, salt, ruins and
even the Chad war with drawings
and maps and of course great pictures.
|
 SAHARA - LAND BEYOND IMAGINATION
Frans Lemmens, 2004 (28 x 28cm, 192pp)
After two decades travel in Africa, Frans Lemmens has produced a lavish protographic essay of the Sahara; a high quality, non-glossy production with a pleasing, clean design and an intelligent commentary by Martijn de Rooi which avoids the floweriness that so often accompanies these books.
As always it is the alluring dune images which most capture the imagination, be they abstract close-ups or rosey panoramas cast across sand seas. But there is just enough coverage of other desert themes to help fill picure of the Central Sahara, Morocco and the Nile, including some stunning portraits and breathtaking vistas that remind you of the Sahara's compelling visual appeal. One regret (and a common complaint with just about every Sahara picture book) is the absence of material from the western and eastern Sahara. It would have been good to let the Moors, Tubu and the Libyan Desert get a piece of the action as these areas are no less photogenic. Maybe that can be the author's next project but for now ... Imagination is up there with the best of the Saharan picture books.
Available directly from the author's website for ¤59.95 + shipping or from Dutch bookshops. You can also download a 2.7mb pdf preview here
|
EGYPT, CIVILISATION IN THE SANDS
 Pauline and Phillipe de Flers (Konemann, 2000, (o/p)
Thankfully not another 'pharaohs and fellucas' job. The first half covers the Western Oases (Siwa, Farafra, Dakhla, etc), the second the Sand Sea, Gilf and Uweinat: the history, rock art, inter-war explorers, geology, etc, all with great photos and interesting boxed asides. This sort of book would normally be 30-40 quid, but at Stanfords it was remaindered at £9.99. I should have bought them all. Scarce on the web. |
