Following from an earlier post on the Sapeurs, I am glad to see someone has produced a fairly comprehensive book showcasing the dandies of the Congo. Photographer Daniele Tamagni captures the fascinating subculture where designer suits and luxury items are the order of the day. Published by Trolley Books.
Absolutely beautiful collection by German photographer, Hans Silvester entitled “Les Habits de la Nature”, celebrating the unique art of the Surma and Mursi tribes of the Omo Valley, on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Amazing.
http://www.lamaisonpresbastille.com/habit_nature.php?test=1
WHERE ARE YOU GO is a 60 minute film that follows the adventurers and bicycle riders from Cairo to Cape Town en route with the Tour d’ Afrique, the world’s longest bicycle race and expedition.
Directed by Benny Zenga & Brian Vernor
Watch trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NpubbAzKSY
Catch it as part of the Bicycle Film Festival near you:
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/
Late posting, but seen recently at Stux Gallery (January 29 – March 21, 2009), new works by Ruud Van Empel.
http://web.ruudvanempel.nl/works.html
 
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The evolution of a soundsystem.
“Chillin in Ghana”… check GHANA MUSIC – My Mankessim Impressions, a Project of the AFRICA YOUTH SPACE Media Club of Mankessim.
By drumghana
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Made In Queens is a short film about a group of imaginative tinkerers from Trinidad were working late into the nights creating something nobody had ever seen before: enormous stereo systems jury rigged onto ordinary bmx bikes.
Travelling together, each behind the handlebars of his or her own massive homemade creation, they treat the neighborhood to an outrageous impromptu music and dance party on wheels. Directed by Randall Stevens, Made In Queens is a documentary film celebrating America’s first stereobike crew.
The Ugandan Skateboard Union is a youth orientated upliftment program based in Kitintale, Kampala District in Uganda. Big up.
UPDATE
Check this video preview for Board Master.
On a recent goodwill trip to the Victoria Falls and mighty Zambezi, an aide to the King had to make an emergency call after his SatPhone went overboard during a leisurely canoe trip downstream. These guys helped him out.
If you’re swanning around the vicinity of Wembley Square in your filthy Jeep, let the King’s preferred car valet service sort you out.Â
African Salad is not a new book, but is definitely worth bumping your under utilised Jamie off the kitchen shelf.
Not that you will be cooking too many of these dishes, it’s pages are filled with a salad of South Africans at home, honestly portrayed without any trace of a patronising onlooker. Each person stands proudly in front of their shack, hut, cottage or mansion and with a smile offers a glimpse of their day to day life in their intimate surroundings.
The photographs celebrate a South Africa of today and one of years ago, where saturday afternoon and sunday morning visits to friends, aunts and grannies were being played out.
Published by dayone. Photographs Stan Engelbrecht. Text Tamsen de Beer.
Link to site.
A look at two artists that have put a smile on our dial.
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Johan Fanozi ‘Chickenman’ Mkhize began making art objects to sell on the street after being laid off work at a dairy farm.Â
He began with a moving dance sculpture while his road signs could found nearby along the kerb. It was these ‘road signs’ with their witty observations and odd typesetting, that captured the public’s imagination, and soon Chickenman signs were being snapped up by art and objet collectors.
More on Chickenman here and here.
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You may have choked on your blini at Greenmarket Square seeing this man with his giant headdress made of eggs and artifacts.Â
“The guy with all the eggs on his head” is Gregory Da Silva, aka the ‘Egg Man’ or ‘Ei man’, a walking work of art and fast becoming a mobile ‘tourist spot’.
His headdress weighs up to twenty five kilograms and, initially, it was so bizarre, the bemused City Police detained him in a vehicle and called their superiors for advice. Naturally, he was free to go and is now very popular with tourists, posing in hundreds of photos during season and has also been hired to receive guests at hotels and airports!
More on the Egg Man here and here.