Exhibitions

The Kenya born artist Mirella Ricciardi has travelled for over forty years around Africa to  record her home, country and its people. The result of her journey is reflected in the unique  photographs which form the basis of the bestselling book Vanishing Africa (1971). Vanishing  Africa was the prototype for the so-called 'coffee-table book', which granted a new audience  an unprecedented insight into the world of the East African people. It also became a model  for Leni Riefenstahl and Peter Beard, the latter has a close friendship with Ricciardi. When  Mirella Ricciardi began photography in 1967 she did not have any technical training. She was  inspired by the surroundings of Lake Naivasha, where she grew up and a place with a  number of native Africans and a wide variety of animals. These two years of her work include  portraits of six Kenyan tribes and their traditional lifestyle: Samburu, the Maasai, the Rendille,  Turkana, the Bajun and the Gala Boran. Particular focus is on their traditional way of life and  death, and their incomparable simple beauty.  

In collaboration with Amina Ricciardi, the daughter of the photographer and founder of Mirella  Ricciardi Photographic Archive, Blanca Bernheimer will show a selection of limited edition  large-format platinum handprints and silver gelatine prints. They provide a unique insight into  the world of East Africa and Ricciardi's approach to her work. Some of these images have  never been exhibited before and will now be shown at Bernheimer in Munich for the first time  since the publication in 1971.