Synopses & Reviews
From April to August 1961, recent Harvard graduate Michael Clark Rockefeller was sound recordist and still photographer on a remarkable multidisciplinary expedition to the Dani people of highland New Guinea. In five short months he produced a wonderful body of work, including over 4,000 black-and-white negatives.
In this catalogue, photographer Kevin Bubriski explores Rockefeller's journey into the culture and community of the Dani and into rapport with the people whose lives he chronicled. The book reveals not only the young photographer's growing fluency in the language of the camera, but also the development of his personal way of seeing the Dani world around him. Although Rockefeller's life was cut tragically short on an expedition to the Asmat in the fall of 1961, his photographs are as vivid today as they were the moment they were made.
Featuring over 75 photographs, this beautiful volume is the first publication of a substantial body of Michael Rockefeller's visual legacy. Rockefeller's extraordinary photographs reveal both the resilient spirit of the Dani people and the anthropological and aesthetic eye of a young man full of promise. In a Foreword, Robert Gardner provides a personal recollection of Michael Rockefeller's experience in the New Guinea highlands.
Review
Scenes of tribal life possess a certain beauty and innocence, and this volume is made all the more poignant by the fact that [Rockefeller] did not get to continue his work, for he disappeared while on his next expedition. The documents reproduced here are a fascinating first look at the considerable talent of this anthropologist with a camera. Black and White Magazine
Synopsis
From April to August 1961, recent Harvard graduate Michael Clark Rockefeller served as sound recordist and photographer on a remarkable multidisciplinary expedition to highland New Guinea. In only five months he produced an impressive body of work, including over 4,000 black and white negatives. In this catalogue of over 75 photographs, photographer Bubriski explores Rockefeller's journey into the culture and community of the Dani people, presenting the first substantial publication of his visual legacy.
Synopsis
Third Place Winner, 2007 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award, Photography Category
Synopsis
2008 Benjamin Franklin Award, Interior Design 1-2 Color, Independent Book Publishers Association
About the Author
Kevin Bubriski is a documentary photographer and curator of an exhibit of Michael Rockefeller’s photographs at the Harvard Peabody Museum. He has been the recipient of Guggenheim, Fulbright, and NEA fellowships, and his photographs are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
Filmmaker Robert Gardner is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; founding director of Harvard Film Study Center (1957-1997); former director, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts; faculty member, Department of Anthropology and Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, 1960-2000. He is the author of The Impulse to Preserve(2006) and Making Dead Birds: Chronicle of a Film (2007).