Yallah – a journey across the Sahara Desert
Peter Werner Häberlin took these pictures between 1949 and 1952 during his four journeys through the Sahara Desert. He followed the traditional caravan route, which runs from Algiers across the desert to Cameroon.
Häberlin was born in 1912 in Oberaach, canton Thurgau. His job as a photographer allowed him to pursue his life-long passion for travelling. During his prolonged stays in the Sahara Desert, he spent days looking for the perfect shot without thinking too much about the publication of his pictures or a potential target audience. His fascination with the African continent was in part also a reaction to the dramatic years of the war and his search for an unspoilt place, a world away from ravaged Europe. Shortly after his travels to Africa, Häberlin had a fatal accident. Posthumously, Zurich-based Manesse Verlag published the pictures in a book entitled “Yallah” with a preface written by Paul Bowles, the author of The Sheltering Sky. (All pictures by Peter W. Häberlin).
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