Casimir Zagourski

Casimir Zagourski (in Polish Kazimierz Zagórski) (1883–1944) was a pioneering photographer of Central African peoples and customs.

Zagourski was born in Zhytomyr (Ukraine) in 1883. He was of Polish ethnicity, from the noble Clan of Ostoja. He served in the Imperial Russian Air Force until 1917, rising to the rank of colonel, and in the Polish military during 1920.

He emigrated from Europe in 1924 and settled in Léopoldville (Belgian Congo), gallicizing his name and opening a photographic studio. Between 1924 and his death he travelled widely in Central Africa, undertaking expeditions to photograph "disappearing" African folkways in 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1937.

His albums and a postcard series collectively titled L'Afrique qui disparaît! gained him considerable renown.

See also

• Ostoja coat of arms
• Clan of Ostoja

Sources

• Krzysztof Pluskota. "Atelier Photo Cinématographique—C. Zagourski." In Christraud M. Geary, In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960. London: Philip Wilson, 2002. ISBN 0-85667-551-1. pp. 59–68.
• Christraud M. Geary. "The Image World of Casimir Zagourski." In In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960. London: Philip Wilson, 2002. ISBN 0-85667-551-1. pp. 69–79.
• Zagourski: Lost Africa. Skira, 2001. ISBN 8884910080.
  • Zagourski: Africa perduta. Skira, 2001. ISBN 8884910064.

External links

• Casimir Zagourski postcard collection in Yale University Library.
• Holdings of Zagourski photographs in the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art.
• Web gallery of Zagourski postcards.