Casimir Zagourski

Casimir Ostoja Zagourski (in Polish Kazimierz Zagórski; 9 August 1883 – 10 January 1944) was a Polish former military officer and later photographer of colonial life in Belgian Congo and other Central African regions.

Life and work

Zagourski was born in the city of Zhytomyr in the Russian Empire in 1883. He was Polish, from the noble Clan of Ostoja. Zagourski first served in the Imperial Russian Air Force until the fall of the Russian czar in 1917, rising to the rank of colonel, and then in the Polish military in 1920. During this time, he started with photography, which later would become his profession.

Looking for a new life, he emigrated from Europe in 1924 and settled in Léopoldville, the capital of the former Belgian Congo, where he slightly adapted his name to French spelling and opened a photographic studio. In Léopoldville as well as in other regions of the Belgian and French Congo, he documented colonial life such as the visit of Belgian king Albert I and his wife in 1928. His customers were mainly members of the expatriate community.

Between 1924 and his death twenty years later, he travelled widely in Central Africa, undertaking expeditions to photograph "disappearing" native African traditions in 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1937.Christraud M. Geary, ''In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960'' (Smithsonian Institution, 2002), 59-79. Apart from selling his images to newspapers, he mainly published them as postcards and large prints. In 1937, 60 of his prints in large format were shown at the Belgian pavilion of the Paris World Fair.

His book ''L'Afrique qui disparaît!'' (Lost Africa), with 415 silver gelatin prints on postcard stock, numbered and originally published in leather-bound editions, was later translated into English and Italian and has contributed to his reputation after his lifetime. The photographs in this book were taken in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Chad, Kenya, Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Congo Brazzaville. Apart from many scenes of everyday life, they include vernacular African architecture, picturesque landscapes, animals and portraits of African men and women, including the Mangbetu people and others.

After his death in Léopoldville in 1944, his nephew Marian Zagórski continued the studio, selling and republishing his uncle's images until 1976.

Reception

Cultural anthropologist Christraud M. Geary included several of Zagourski's images in her book ''Postcards from Africa: Photographers of the Colonial Era'' and called him "one of the most accomplished and well-known photographer-publishers" in late-colonial Africa. Referring to his portrait of a Mangbetu woman with traditional hairstyle, Geary pointed out pictorialist lighting and depth of focus, which was different from his usual modernist documentary style.

The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art praised ''L'Afrique qui disparaît!'' for the "superb technique and great sensitivity" of Zagourski's portraits of Africans. And although being an example of anthropological photography, the images "evoke a sense of closeness and empathy", shaping "the public's image of central Africa for many years to come."

Photographs in public and private collections

In Europe, the National Library of Poland presents more than 150 of Zagourski's images in their online collection. In Geneva, Switzerland, the Ethnographic Museum received a copy with 420 original postcards of ''L'Afrique disparue'' in 2015. Further, the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands and the collectiom of the city of Antwerp, Belgium, have collections of Zagourski's images. Further, the State Archives of Belgium possess 415 negatives and postcards, along with official and personal documents from Zagourski's estate.

In the US, Yale University Library holds about 250 of his images in their African postcard collection. Further, negatives, hundreds of postcards and black-and-white prints of his images have been collected by the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art. In 2002/2003, Zagourski's photos were shown in the National Museum of African Art's exhibition ''In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885–1960''. Another exhibition was presented at the Maison de la Photographie in Marrakesh. - Privately held copies of Zagourski's ''L'Afrique qui disparait '' have also been sold by Sotheby's and other auction houses.

Publications

* Pierre Loos and Ezio Bassani (eds.) (2001). ''Zagourski, L'Afrique disparue''. Paris: Skira-Seuil. . (in French)
** Pierre Loos and Ezio Bassani (eds.) (2001). ''Zagourski: Lost Africa'' Milan: Skira, .
** Pierre Loos and Ezio Bassani (eds.)''Zagourski: Africa perduta'' (2001). Milan: Skira, 2001. . (in Italian)

Gallery

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Dansers in Rwanda TMnr 60033969.jpg,
File:L’ Afrique qui disparait 89. Een Mutudzi Foto C. Zagourski Léopoldville, asset X2aJsEqA6fPsDfhSmRvw9GTL.jpg,
File:L’ Afrique qui disparait 40. Danseres “Ya – Koma” Foto C. Zagourski Léopoldville, asset wQEVSJtMCeUTQVJKR9g54BKz.jpg,
File:L’ Afrique qui disparait 104. Heilige bétails (runderen) Foto C. Zagourski Léopoldville, asset zOpbYZWCRThhMSTNfu9p6xN3.jpg,

See also

* Ostoja coat of arms
* Clan of Ostoja
* Marcin Szyszkowski
* Édouard Foà

Further reading

* Grzesiewicz-Sałacińska, Małgorzata, and Marcin Sroczyński. 2009. ''Karty Pocztowe Kazimierza ZagóRskiego Z Kolekcji Witolda Grzesiewicza = Cartes Postales de Casimir Zagourski de La Collection de Witold Grzesiewicz''. Warszawa: Gondwana. (in Polish)
*
* Krzysztof Pluskota
"Atelier Photo Cinématographique—C. Zagourski"
In Christraud M. Geary (ed.), ''In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960''. London: Philip Wilson, 2002. ISBN  0-8566-7551-2. pp. 59–68.
* Christraud M. Geary. "The Image World of Casimir Zagourski". In Christraud M. Geary (ed.), ''In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960''. London: Philip Wilson, 2002. . pp. 69–79.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagourski, Casimir

1883 births
1944 deaths
Military personnel from Zhytomyr
20th-century Polish nobility
Clan of Ostoja
Polish emigrants
Polish photographers
Russian military personnel of World War I