I spent over one-fifth of my life in Africa. Traveling there first at age sixteen, I returned multiple times for years long trips andr I later moving to the continent and buying a farm. When I left Africa I used to refer to my farm and people would laugh and say in an elder voice “I had a farm in Africa…” I hadn’t watched Out of Africa and so I was a bit confused. During my years there I was always fascinated by historical photographs I saw in museums and books from the 1800s and early 1900s. The aged sepia tones captured my imagination for some reason and primed me for deep appreciation of the collage work of Peter Beard who celebrated his mid-century East Africa lifestyle with rough and messy, faux aged and retro imagery. When I turned thirty I located my birth family and learned that my great-grandfather had worked in West Africa procuring products for cosmetics . I was amazed when my newly found family showed me old photos of his steamboat journeys on the Congo. It’s been twenty years since I returned to the US an, d as I excavate vast archives of imagery I am having fun taking many of my “B-Roll” images and making them duo and tri-tones in homage to the great Peter Beard and my Grandad.