AFRIKA. Cape Town and South-West Africa, 1931. de [Africa] - 1931

1931. Very Good. Stab binding, bound with grey ribbon, patterned cloth over boards (13” x 9.25”) with handwritten titles on front board; contains 19 grey heavy cardstock leaves, each featuring numerous b/w photographs (more than 150 in all, average size is 3” x 4.25”) affixed to rectos and versos with photo-corners, most of them labeled by hand, in German (with some English). Boards a little rubbed and scuffed, else fine.

A lovely young African woman, wearing robes, a turban, and a necklace, clutches a pipe in her teeth and poses for the camera in front of a thatched roof house. The photograph bears the handwritten label, “Basutofrau aus dem Hinterland von East London.” So begins this collection of images – photographs taken by the author, and postcards – of Cape Town and South-West Africa in 1931. It offers a nice balance of the personal – with images of the author’s friends at picnics, hiking (with men in suits and hat, and the ladies in dresses and high-heeled shoes!), on ship, and watching street performers – and the more broadly interesting streetscapes and landmarks. (The African people, it seems, were also generously willing to smile for the camera.) Postcards have labels printed in English, identifying Camps Bay, Chapman Peak, government buildings, memorials, etc., and the photographs taken by the author usually identify the place and date (tidy penmanship, in German, and often with a quip). Though a few of the author’s photographs are a little blurry or over-exposed, most are nicely composed – and all of the images (photos and postcards) are bright and clean. A pleasing amalgam.