By Guest Author
Published: January 1, 2001
Updated: 3 months ago

Africa Photo Pictorial

Editor’s Note: These photographs may look old-fashioned now, but when we first started posting photos most images were scanned in from film negatives, which have a very different color gamut than digital, and the resolution on the internet was very poor. Images needed to be only a few kilobytes so that you could download them with a phone modem; now they are hundreds of times bigger. Learn more about our original film photographs. Fortunately, I found the original images for this pictorial. I hope you enjoy this trip back in time.

Update: We recently found our higher-res version on our backup. These images are about as good as they get for that time period.

By Seth Tator

An African adventure captured on film.

The Dunes of Central Namibia. The unique red-orange color is due to the ore from the surrounding land. Imagine an orange glacier eight or nine stories tall, slowly, through the centuries, moving over trees, valleys, and bushes alike. And then uncovering them just the same.

Canyon river bed in central Namibia. This canyon is dry in all but the wettest portion of the year. To get to the bottom one must wind back and forth, following channels eroded over thousands of years. The floor is dotted with large black beetles who are standing still with their abdomens raised to catch moisture. This is something I never expected to see, something that made sense on nature shows, but actually seeing thousands of large black beetles during our walk really put life in a different perspective.

Beached ship on the Mozambique coastline. — The Mozambique coastline. Here the water is clear and warm, and the palm trees thick and lush. Pictured is a dowl used by local residents in Vilanculos for transit and fishing.

Sunrise in Motopas National park. — Sunrise in Motopas National Park. The valleys are created from immense piles of boulders.

Railroad ties disappear into the sand dunes. — The remnants of a train line between Swakopmund and Windhoek claimed by the tan dunes of the Swakopmund desert.

Mt. Binga, the highest point in both Zimbabwe and Mozambique, with a frothy cap of clouds.

Africa Photo Pictorial Seth Tator 04 — In South Africa, there is a clear distinction between the rural areas and the cities. I was in the Northern Province when I took this picture inside the classroom. There is certainly a brightness about youth that transcends any situation, and yet it is clear that the future of South Africa must overcome much to reach its goals.

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One Comment

Margret Dugan says:
2000-08-03 at 9:00 am
Great photo novella of Egypt. I am especially drawn to the photo of Egyptian women waterbearers. So stark and far from my water experiences. It was shot in a nice brownish light or perhaps with film that produces those tones. Perfect for Egypt. It reminded me of some old Erroll Flynn movie. Nice work. ~ MD
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Bicycle Buttons

As a bicyclist and a very creative person, I wanted to add something to my travels and created the velobotones — small bikes made of wire and colorful buttons.