Two Frenchmen, 1,000 kilometers, zero camels with air conditioning.
In 1950, the explorer Roger Frison-Roche made a crossing of more than a thousand kilometers on the back of a camel with the photographer Georges Tairraz II, in the heart of the Sahara, from Hoggar then Djanet in Algeria to Ghat in Libya. From their journey they brought back a large number of color films and documents. Among thousands of photos, they selected 47 images which reflect the various aspects of these immense spaces which occupy a third of Africa in the book "The Great Desert". “The Great Desert, 1000 kilometers on camelback” is the eponymous 85-minute documentary of this epic, released in 1950.
Cinematography
Hand-processed color that makes Instagram filters weep.
Practical Effects
Actual camels. Actual desert. Zero green screens in 1950.
Director
Georges Tairraz II
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This expedition occurred during Algeria's bloody path toward independence; the serene desert imagery deliberately erases the violent colonial context of French Algeria in 1950.
Georges Tairraz II came from a dynasty of mountain photographer-explorers—his grandfather shot the first ascent of the Matterhorn. This family basically invented 'extreme content creation.'
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