#PE68
Ca. 1900s
Oblong Large Octavo album (ca. 16,5x24 cm or 6 ½ x 9 ¼ in). 56 paper leaves. With 80 mounted original gelatin silver photos, including over thirty larger images from ca. 12,5x17,5 cm (4 ¾ x 6 ¾ in) to ca. 11,5x13,5 cm (5 ¼ x 4 ½ in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 8x9 cm (3 ¼ x 3 ½ in) to ca. 4,5x8 cm (1 ¾ x 3 ¼ in). Ca. 40 images with period ink captions in French on the mounts. Period grey quarter cloth album with papered boards; marbled endpapers. Binding rubbed on extremities, spine soiled, some photos with various degrees of fading or mild silvering, but overall a very good album of interesting strong photos.
Interesting collection of eighty original gelatin silver photographs – mostly ethnographic portraits and scenes with the native people of French colonial Guinea (modern-day Republic of Guinea). Taken by a French resident of the colony, the photos resemble images taken by François-Edmon Fortier (1862-1928), a prolific documentary photographer of French West Africa. The images in the album portray “Foulah” (Fula), “Soussou” (Susu) and “Cogniaghi” (Conagui) people – individuals and groups of men, young women, families, and children; the photos allow to see traditional costumes, decorations and hair styles. There are also portraits of “Femmes Tirailleurs,” inhabitants of a Guinean forest, women washing laundry in a river, a family from Rio Pongo, women from Kourussa, a chief with his wives, scenes at a Conakry market, in a local village, at a well, in a “caravanserail,” a views of “case de Sokbi à Kipé,” a river wharf with a group of native people on a pier, &c. Three photos feature Frenchmen, posing with native people and youth in Kippe (Kipe) or watching Guinean farm workers. Overall an interesting collection of original portraits of the indigenous people of Guinea in the early 20th century.
