Signed; Martin Waalboer - A dream called Harper - 2013

The Liberian town of Harper is no ordinary town. This much is immediately apparent when paging through this book. The pictures, show what remains today of this once-flourishing settlement of freed slaves who began to return from the US to the land of their ancestors as early as the 1820s. The photos testify to Harper’s better days and have a distinctly melancholic air to them. With its mansions and churches inspired by the 19th century architecture of the American South. It was the birthplace of Liberia’s President William Tubman and the town enjoyed electricity, running water in the houses and a sewage system.

This came to an end in 1990 when Charles Taylor’s rebels arrived. Between 1990 and 2003 Harper was overran three times by different rebel groups and the wooden houses were no match for fire-raisers and looters. But some of the buildings, though scarred and decaying, are still standing. Harper is a reminder of the glories and failures of Liberia”, Martin Waalboer succeeds at capturing these glories and failures.