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George Rodger: An Adventure in Photography, 1908-1995
He was a trailblazing twentieth-century British photojournalist but George Rodger lived in the adventurous tradition of nineteenth-century explorers. Cofounding Magnum Photos in 1947 with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, the modest Rodger was eclipsed by his partnersuntil now.
Rodger's Indiana Jones-style escapades are legendary and worth the telling. He once covered over 75,000 miles of "old Africa" in a Land Rover. He even survived a white rhino charge. He went on to become a key photographer of African tribal life. During World War II he covered sixty-one countries for Life magazine. He was chased through three hundred miles of Burmese jungles by both the Japanese army and a tribe of headhunters. And he was the first to record the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He quit photography when he realized he was arranging "thousands of Jewish corpses in nice photographic compositions."
In fascinating detail Carol Naggar not only recalls Roger's singular life and artistic contribution, but she also provides an in-depth look at the complex dynamics of ethics, violence, and photojournalism. As such, it places the legacy of George Rodger within a broader sociohistorical context.
Rodger's Indiana Jones-style escapades are legendary and worth the telling. He once covered over 75,000 miles of "old Africa" in a Land Rover. He even survived a white rhino charge. He went on to become a key photographer of African tribal life. During World War II he covered sixty-one countries for Life magazine. He was chased through three hundred miles of Burmese jungles by both the Japanese army and a tribe of headhunters. And he was the first to record the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He quit photography when he realized he was arranging "thousands of Jewish corpses in nice photographic compositions."
In fascinating detail Carol Naggar not only recalls Roger's singular life and artistic contribution, but she also provides an in-depth look at the complex dynamics of ethics, violence, and photojournalism. As such, it places the legacy of George Rodger within a broader sociohistorical context.
318 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2003
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June 15, 2010
Biographies written by friends of the subject are always transforming, certainly for the author. Carole Naggar shares her virtual journey of discovery in parallel with the remarkable travel and travails of George Rodger in this post-mortem recollection driven biography. Naggar does not hesitate to share in both prologue and epilogue the results on her own views of her friend the results of her journey into the life of George Rodger.
Rodgers, both known and unknown during his life, is the biographers enigmatic jewel in disguise with facets and cracks to be revealed. A man behind a mask with not altogether admirably personal qualities that when revealed after his death combined with further revelations from his own writings tell the story of a generation of men in the 20th Century.
The quintessential photo-journalist who disappeared behind his work. A prolific photographer and visual historian of World War II without equal. A troubled, shell shocked, depressed, bigoted, emotional distant human who communicated often personally only at a superficial emotional level with his closest friends and family. A man who generated great loyalty and devotion among his colleagues and admirers.
George Rodgers made some of the defining photographs of World War II including the best of the London Blitz photos. His photos of the North African Campaign, though not thought of as his are the standard. Then there are the concentration camp photographs that shocked the world. The power of this imagery alone pushed him behind the work.
National Geographic never hired a better photographer. Rodgers photographed the Africa that would no longer exist in months or years after his work. His work in fact it is argued led to the demise of certain groups who previously were unknown or only legendary. Rodgers was the true great white hunter who journeyed into the Africa that Hemingway only dreamed of and never saw. Rodgers brought back the best and arguably only true photographs of many things as his were the first.
Colleagues of his in the formation of Magnum Photo were better at self promotion and had better cocktail party personalities, but were no better photographers. Some of them were launched into immortality by untimely battlefield death or tragic accident that Rodger avoided. George Rodger in death emerged fully from behind the prints on the wall as a far more complex man than most of his colleagues and herein ties a greater legacy.
Author Carole Naggar begins and ends this well written standard style biography with the funeral of George Rodger. The funeral is attend by a cast of characters from family to business associates, to the self styled jealous guardians of Rodger's heritage who realize they held no handle on this reality, to his long suffering wife Jinx and the silent Nuba who comprised his final escort. The gardens George Rodger tended until his death are filled with these people in attendance for reasons of their own. Naggar uses this backdrop of renewal and beginning of acquaintance to open an aperture into the mind and life of George Rodger.
A solid, well written biography that shares an important story of an unheralded visionary who will not be as anonymous in death as he became in life.
Rodgers, both known and unknown during his life, is the biographers enigmatic jewel in disguise with facets and cracks to be revealed. A man behind a mask with not altogether admirably personal qualities that when revealed after his death combined with further revelations from his own writings tell the story of a generation of men in the 20th Century.
The quintessential photo-journalist who disappeared behind his work. A prolific photographer and visual historian of World War II without equal. A troubled, shell shocked, depressed, bigoted, emotional distant human who communicated often personally only at a superficial emotional level with his closest friends and family. A man who generated great loyalty and devotion among his colleagues and admirers.
George Rodgers made some of the defining photographs of World War II including the best of the London Blitz photos. His photos of the North African Campaign, though not thought of as his are the standard. Then there are the concentration camp photographs that shocked the world. The power of this imagery alone pushed him behind the work.
National Geographic never hired a better photographer. Rodgers photographed the Africa that would no longer exist in months or years after his work. His work in fact it is argued led to the demise of certain groups who previously were unknown or only legendary. Rodgers was the true great white hunter who journeyed into the Africa that Hemingway only dreamed of and never saw. Rodgers brought back the best and arguably only true photographs of many things as his were the first.
Colleagues of his in the formation of Magnum Photo were better at self promotion and had better cocktail party personalities, but were no better photographers. Some of them were launched into immortality by untimely battlefield death or tragic accident that Rodger avoided. George Rodger in death emerged fully from behind the prints on the wall as a far more complex man than most of his colleagues and herein ties a greater legacy.
Author Carole Naggar begins and ends this well written standard style biography with the funeral of George Rodger. The funeral is attend by a cast of characters from family to business associates, to the self styled jealous guardians of Rodger's heritage who realize they held no handle on this reality, to his long suffering wife Jinx and the silent Nuba who comprised his final escort. The gardens George Rodger tended until his death are filled with these people in attendance for reasons of their own. Naggar uses this backdrop of renewal and beginning of acquaintance to open an aperture into the mind and life of George Rodger.
A solid, well written biography that shares an important story of an unheralded visionary who will not be as anonymous in death as he became in life.
Displaying 1 of 1 review