Vintage East Africa

Good Monday!

I would love to start this week off with this wonderful collection of vintage pictures of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Tanzania (especially in light of yesterday's excitement). Many of us have parents or grandparents with a wonderful collection of photographs documenting their early years. Whenever I go to my mom's house, I love digging through her early pictures. One of my favorites is a shot of my sister screaming her little 6-year old head off at the beach in Buchanan, Liberia. She is sporting a little band-aid on her forehead and my mom is in this hot red swimsuit, hair flying everywhere, trying to comfort her. These pictures remind me of how lucky she was to be able to escape Liberia during a time of war with such memories safely tucked away. They are also a wonderful window into the Liberia (and the Germany) of both her youth.

This is one of the reasons why these pictures by Paul Jackson of Art Nahpro, are so wonderful. In addition to showing pictures of his parents during their travels in East Africa during the late 1940s and early 1950s, his mother also had these amazing images gathered from trips to Ethiopia and Eritrea. While these subjects probably never saw the print of these images nor had to ability to save and share them with others, they are nonetheless a snapshot of someone's mother, sister, wife, brother, father, or son, immortalized for us to forever admire.

Definitely check out more of Jackson's collection here and stay tuned for a new photography series.

So, speaking of vintage pictures, what are some of your favorites from your family's collection?