Passage to Congo, A: Photographs by Doctor Emile Muller 1923-1938
by: Loos, Pierre, Pierre Buch and Emile Muller

Hardcover. Milan, 5 Continents, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 142 pages, b&w photographs taken by Muller. Illustrated boards, no dust jacket issued. A Passage to Congo is a collection of photographs taken by Doctor mile Muller (1891-1976) in the Congo provinces of the Kasa< and Katanga, territories of the Chokwe, Luba, Bashibushong and Basalampasu tribes. For these people, he was not the boss, but he who cured, who gave relief, who listened. He could move easily between the tribes without having to tackle the reticence that has denatured so many ethnic photographs. The privileged witnesses of esoteric ceremonies that are rarely photographed, his images are precious from an ethnographic and historical point of view, and reveal a fine aesthetic sense and profound humanity. Veritable living masks, as in the remarkable portraits of young Chokwe girls, astonishing initiation rites, scenes of divination, wild rhythmic dances responding to the beat of the large slotted drums, sculptural bodies decorated with tattoos and refined headgear recall the beauty and riches of these cultures, now lost in the modern world.