Photographers - Part 13

George Rodger

George Rodger (1908-1995) was a British photojournalist.  His photos of the Blitz at the start of World War II got him a job as a war correspondent for LIFE magazine.  Toward the end of the war, he was one of the first photographers to enter the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.  His photos were influential in publicizing Nazi atrocities, but he was appalled to realize that he had been photographing piles of dead bodies with an eye for pleasing photo composition.  He decided to quit as a war correspondent.

After the war, he travelled throughout Africa and the Middle East, documenting the wildlife and the indigenous peoples.  He is especially known for his 1949 photos of the Nuba people in the province of Kordofan in the southern Sudan.  The rest of this post consists of those photos of the Nuba. The photo above is a Nuba tribesman entering a bedroom.  Note that the costumes of the men consist of a string around the waist and an optional anklet.

More Nuba men during a celebration.  Again, they're naked, aside from something around the waist and some anklets for decoration.  Most Americans and Europeans no doubt considered them naked savages, but being naked is actually very sensible in a hot climate.

Rodger documented Nuba wrestling and fighting matches as well as ritual dancing.  Above are two wrestlers facing off before a match.

Above is my favorite George Rodger photo.  The winner of a wrestling match gets carried around on the shoulders of another to celebrate his triumph.  Note that this guy is not even wearing a string around his waist.

These are bracelet fighters in a group of Nubas called Kao-Nyaro.  Bracelet fighting may not sound very macho, but these bracelets are round pieces of metal with sharp, sometimes jagged edges, as seen on the guy at left, which could wound the opponent and were occasionally fatal.

The bracelet fights were one-on-one matches like the one above.  The guy behind the fighters appears to be a referee.

We close with some excerpts from a 1949 film that Rodger made about the Nuba in Kordofan.  The complete film contains scenes of wildlife, of transporting Rodger's Land Rover across a river, of dancing by Nuba men, women and children, and more.  I extracted a few scenes of men dancing while wearing their native costume, i.e. little or nothing.