During this time as International Editor of Topic (1967-1988), a magazine published by the United States Information Agency (USIA), Richard Saunders took at least 50 trips to Africa, visiting 30 countries and travelling the length and breadth of the continent. He visited big cities, towns and tiny villages in the bush, living with, and becoming part of, the communities he was photographing where he became affectionately known as ‘the man with the cameras’.
“I never took pictures of what people thought Africa was about,” he said. “I was there to record what I saw when I saw it […] I never felt strange in Africa. It was always like going home.”