The Wrestlers, Kordofan, Sudan
About this artwork
This famous photograph by George Rodger shows two muscular wrestler of a Nuba tribe in Kordofan, Southern Sudan. It was taken in 1949, during Rodger’s journey across Africa which he made to escape the traumas of the Second World War. The impact of this photograph has a melancholy ending. Despite Roger’s unwillingness to reveal the whereabouts of the tribe to German filmmaker and photographer Leni Riefenstahl, the latter discovered their location some fifteen years later. In the 1970s, her photographs of the Nuba people were published throughout the world and attracted more people to the area. The Sudanese government subsequently encouraged the oppression and displacement of Nuba tribes because they wrongly suspected them of unified alliance to the Sudan People's Liberation Army.
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title:The Wrestlers, Kordofan, Sudan
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accession number:PGP 280.1
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materials:Silver gelatine print
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date created:1949
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measurements:32.50 x 25.10 cm
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credit line:Purchased 2001
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copyright:© George Rodger / Magnum Photos
George Rodger
George Rodger
George Rodger was one of the original photographers who formed the Magnum photographic agency in 1947. After experiencing the horror of the concentration camp at Belsen, which he photographed in 1945, Rodger felt an urgent need to leave Europe and the pain of war. He set off with his wife…