Members of the Bedouin "camel cavalry," Syria, 1940 by Margaret Bourke-White

 

Members of the Bedouin "camel cavalry," Syria, 1940 by Margaret Bourke-White

I located “Members of the Bedouin "camel cavalry," Syria, 1940” by Margaret Bourke-White on the twitter page of LIFE magazine. I chose this photo mostly for its form, although its content is still interesting. Because most of the title was unfamiliar to me, I looked it up. A Bedouin is a nomad and the “camel cavalry” is a designation for a group or militia that travels by camel. Looking at the photo, this is all rather apparent.

            The photo depicts a row of the stoic Bedouins atop their camels. Each Bedouin is dressed uniquely, yet they’re all wearing typical dress for that region of the world. The presence of the camels over horses causes a slight confusion at first because I’m less familiar with camel riding, but it makes sense given the location the picture was taken.

            The straight line the Bedouins are in provides an interesting frame for the photo. Because of the angle it was taken, they appear to go off almost forever, with each successive person being farther from the picture (and therefore smaller). Also, because the camels didn’t stay (completely) still during the picture, it appears there is a slight motion blur cause by it. The picture captures in time an animal’s nature to keep moving.

            After a little more research the photo intrigues me because there’s very little information available about it. Obviously given the time period and location, we can assume there was turmoil going on during the photo, but not much else can be extracted. Were these men going to defend their homeland from an invader? Did they die in combat?  The article on LIFE.com doesn’t provide much information either, but it does draw a parallel to the situation going on in Syria currently. By drawing the parallel, it becomes easy to imagine a group of Syrians lined up in their own cars ready to defend their homeland in some manner.