Mirella Ricciardi
Mirella Ricciardi: Diary of an African Photographer. "...Born in Kenya, then still a colony of British East Africa, to an Italian father and a French mother, Mirella Ricciardi grew up on the shores of Lake Naivasha in a household which was both sophisticated and wild. She was married at twenty-five to the Italian adventurer Lorenzo Ricciardi, who swept her off her feet and hired her as the photographer on the film he was making in East Africa. She bore him two children, both girls. Marina, their eldest daughter, died of cancer at the age of thirty-six.
Mirella's first book, Vanishing Africa, was published in 1971. An international bestseller, it made her reputation; one reviewer wrote that it was 'a masterpiece of photographic excellence'. She has since published four other photographic books - Vanishing Amazon, African Saga, African Rainbow and most recently, African Visions
http://www.mirellaricciardi.com/africa.html