George Rodger

George Rodger (born March 19, 1908 in Hale , Cheshire , † July 24, 1995 in Ashford , Kent ) was a British photographer .

Life

He went to sea as a sailor from 1926 to 1929 and taught himself photography. Between 1936 and 1938 he worked for the BBC and for the Black Star agency . From 1939 to 1945 he was a war correspondent for Life in many countries, including West Africa , the Sahara , India and Italy .

On April 15, 1945, he was one of the first photographers to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , which was a traumatic experience for him. He then decided to stop working as a war photographer. He made a 45,000 km journey through Africa in search of the originality of life. From 1948 to 1950 he lived for a while in the Nuba Mountains with the Nuba and documented their way of life.

In 1947 he founded the Magnum Photos photo agency together with Robert Capa , Henri Cartier-Bresson and David Seymour .

In 1959 Rodger settled in England and made many other trips to Africa from there, partly on behalf of the Standard Oil Company and Esso . He has reported for National Geographic , Life , London Illustrated, and Stern .

A report in National Geographic in February 1951 aroused Leni Riefenstahl's interest . The German photographer and filmmaker offered Rodger $ 1,000 if he would introduce her to the Nubas. In view of Riefenstahl's propaganda for the Nazi regime, Rodger replied: "Knowing your background and mine, we - I think - have nothing to say to each other."

George Rodger was the father of the filmmaker Peter Rodger and the grandfather of Elliot Rodger, who assassinated Isla Vista in Santa Barbara.

Publications

1943: Red Moon Rising, The Cresset Press.
1944: Desert Journey, The Cresset Press.
1955: Village des Noubas.
- 2017: Nuba & Latuka . The Color Photographs . Prestel, Munich, ISBN 978-3-7913-8322-4 .
1957: Le Sahara.
1994: George Rodger: Humanity and Inhumanity.
2009: George Rodger. On the way 1940–1949, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern.

Web links

Commons : George Rodger - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Literature by and about George Rodger in the catalog of the German National Library
Profile of George Rodger at the Bavarian Insurance Chamber

Individual evidence

↑ George Rodger's biography at Answers
↑ Peter Hamilton, in: George Rodger, Village of the Nuba , London 1999, p. VIII. Hamilton emphasizes that, in contrast to Rodger, Riefenstahl was concerned with the motif of an "exotic species" and that she paid the Nuba to model naked.
↑ Richard Wheatstone: Grandson of Hale-born photographer George Rodger kills seven in university rampage ( English ) MEN Media. May 25, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Rodger, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British photographer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 19, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hale , Cheshire , England
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 1995
Place of death	Ashford , Kent , England

[1] George Rodger's biography at Answers

[2] Peter Hamilton, in: George Rodger, Village of the Nuba , London 1999, p. VIII. Hamilton emphasizes that, in contrast to Rodger, Riefenstahl was concerned with the motif of an "exotic species" and that she paid the Nuba to model naked.

[3] Richard Wheatstone: Grandson of Hale-born photographer George Rodger kills seven in university rampage ( English ) MEN Media. May 25, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2019.