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I had a great visit to the George Rodger archive (George was a co-founder of the Magnum photo agency) last week for a cuppa and a catch up with George’s son Jon Rodger who now looks after the photo archive. Jon and I have worked on a few book projects together over the years – see links below.
While we were chatting, and on our second cup of tea, Jon presented me with the results of his latest deep dive through George’s negatives and journals – a great looking book called Mzuri which features photography from the journey George made with his wife Jinx in 1957 crossing the Sahara in a Land Rover. Their adventure was published in National Geographic magazine the year after which accompanies the book. …and Mzuri was the name they gave the Land Rover.
Jon told me the book was a project by Cool & Vintage and he wanted to thank Ricardo at the Cool & Vintage for producing such a magnificent record of his parents journey – here’s what Cool & Vintage say on Mzuri:
George Rodger wasn’t just any traveler, he co-founded @magnumphotos with Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and “Chim” Seymour, then turned his lens toward Africa with a clarity few have matched.
In 1957 he and his wife Jinx crossed the Sahara in a Land Rover they named Mzuri (“very good,” in Swahili).
Their story ran in @natgeo in May 1958, a calm, unsentimental record of one of the world’s great crossings.
This book is our tribute to that journey.
Not the postcard Sahara, the lived one.
Military convoys at dawn, then suddenly no road at all. Tracks dissolving into wind. Fesh-fesh like talc, swallowing wheels to the axle. Sandstorms that turn noon into dusk; nights under an electric sky. Oases strung like green beads, dates, mint tea, the slow grace of hospitality. The Tuareg in indigo veils, women who carry the line forward. The small rituals that make motion possible: packing and repacking until nothing rattles, water tallied, permits stamped, fear folded neatly beside resolve.
Jinx’s voice keeps time; George’s pictures hold their breath.
Together they show what crossing really is: not conquest, but attention.
This is not nostalgia. It’s continuity, an honest book, carefully made, about two people, and one Land Rover.
Mzuri is published by published by Smörgåsbord Studios and available to order now from Cool & Vintage here.
Thanks for the book Jon! See you again soon.
PAN + George Rodger:
Photo Set Book: George Rodger Land Rover on location
Book and Show: George Rodger Nuba & Latuka – The Colour Photographs