THE REMARKABLE STORY OF THE 1924 LA BEAUTÉ In 2025, in a small thrift shop in Namibia, I found something no one expected to exist here — a nearly intact 101-year-old Parisian photogravure art portfolio, La Beauté, Album X from 1924. What looks at first like an old booklet is actually a rare survivor from the early modernist art world of Paris — the same era that produced Man Ray, Josephine Baker, Picasso’s atelier period, and the birth of Surrealism. Albums like this were never mass-market magazines. They were professional tools used by artists, sculptors, photographers and art students as anatomical and lighting references before photography and printing became widespread. Most of these portfolios were: (a) torn apart in art studios, (b) lost in the chaos of WWII, (c) sold plate-by-plate for profit, (d) thrown away as “indecent,” (e) or simply disintegrated over a century of poor storage. Yet this one survived. It travelled from 1924 Paris — a city buzzing with modern art, the Olympic Games, early photography studios, and bohemian life — all the way to southern Africa, crossing continents and generations with no record of how it got here... It lost its cover, but kept what mattered: 31 intact photogravure plates, clean, undamaged, and printed in the same workshop district that produced some of the earliest modern artistic photography. The statistical odds of such a piece surviving — and then appearing in Namibia — are absurdly small. These albums almost never leave Europe or the US. Many collectors look for years and never find early issues like this one. Whether or not another copy exists on the continent is unknown — but realistically, this may be the only surviving Album X (1924) in Africa. For 225 Namibian dollars, I rescued a cultural artifact that carries: (a) the faces and forms of women who lived a century ago, (b) the craft of early photogravure printing, (c) the history of Parisian art education, (d) and the improbable journey of an object that should not have survived. This tiny portfolio is a reminder that history doesn’t always sit in museums...Sometimes it hides on a dusty thrift shop shelf, waiting for someone paying attention. And now it’s preserved — properly, respectfully — for another hundred years. Hopefully.

WATCH | As South Africa grapples with migration challenges, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, argues that discussions should centre on the underlying causes of migration rather than assigning blame to a single country.

Spot the DR Congo fans in Lisbon 😅 They LOVED Yoane Wissa's equaliser! ❤️

🕊️ Exclusive: Daveigh Chase, star of "The Ring" and "Lilo & Stitch," has died at 35. What we know: tmz.me/4vV13Ui

Daveigh Chase has sadly passed away at the age of 35. She was the voice of Lilo in ‘Lilo & Stitch’ & Chihiro in the English dub of ‘Spirited Away’.

Daveigh Chase 🤍 (1990-2026)

Kinshasa célèbre le match nul face au Portugal de Cristiano Ronaldo

Spot the Congo fans in Lisbon, Portugal when Congo score an equaliser v Portugal at the World Cup… #PORDRC

watched The Ring with a Gen Z the other day and they didn't understand how a VCR tape works and that land lines were a thing she traumatised an entire generation and she was amazing RIP queen of horror

🚨 Morre aos 35 anos, Daveigh Chase, a Samara de O Chamado. A causa da morte foi falência de órgãos por complicação séptica derivada de meningite e infecção sanguínea.

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If Congo had even a fraction more attacking talent, they’d be winning this.

Couple of Congo fans celebrated the equaliser in front of Portugal fans 😂 Inject it into my veins 🩵 #FIFAWorldCup

a moving man will always find his luck

En 1916, l’impératrice Zewditu devient la première femme à régner sur l’Éthiopie moderne. Fille de Ménélik II, elle dirige le pays jusqu’en 1930 et demeure l’une des figures féminines les plus marquantes de l’histoire africaine.

Yehan Wang city

Members of the Ghanaian community in Toronto gathered and celebrated at a hotel downtown to welcome the arrival of the Ghanaian national soccer team, the Black Stars, ahead of their debut World Cup match against Panama on Wednesday.

Those Congolese fans celebrating in the middle of Lisbon park are brave af

HOLY FUCK DR CONGO!!!!!!!! 🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩 FIRST EVER WORLD CUP GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!