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[Identification of item], South Africa Documentary Photographs Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
The prints and other materials in the South Africa Documentary Photographs Collection were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as gifts from 1993-2010.
Processed by Katherine Castles, March 2010
Encoded by Katherine Castles and Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, April 2010
Accessions 1993-0296, 1997-0011, 2008-0042, 2009-0151, and 2010-0024 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Alberts is a Cape Town freelance photojournalist who has served as arts editor for
Alphers has worked as a commercial photographer, a photojournalist, and a photographer for the University of Bophuthatswana. He was an Afrapix member. His work dates from the 1970s.
Badsha is a self-taught painter and photographer who became active as a photographer in the mid-1970s. He was an anti-apartheid activist, a labor organizer, and a founding member of Afrapix, as well as an editor of
Barnett photographed in Johannesburg, elsewhere in Africa, and during world travels. He published several works of photography, and was a founder of South Africa's South Photographic Agency.
Barry spent a year as supervisor of The Haven Night Shelter in Cape Town, the site of some of his photographs. He has taught art in a Port Elizabeth high school, and was a member of the art collective Vukalisa.
Berman became a freelance news photographer in 1980. Her photographs have appeared in exhibitions and books in South Africa and elsewhere.
Arthur Bolton was a British radiologist who settled in KwaZulu Natal after the Second World War. He was a keen photographer whose work is predominantly about Zulu culture in the field as well as in the studio.
Basil Breakey's work focuses on South African jazz culture. He is best known for his photographs in
Cobbing is a British historian of African history who has taught at Rhodes University in South Africa. He is known for his research on Zulu culture of the early 19th century.
Davies is a photographer and sculptor. As a photographer, he is known for his images of South African political struggle primarily from the 1980s. His work has been exhibited in South African group exhibitions.
De Vlieg was born in England and emigrated to South Africa. She was a member of both the Black Sash movement and Afrapix. Her photographs of apartheid resistance and life under apartheid date from the 1980s.
Fischer was a commercial studio photographer specializing in portraits. Her personal projects photographing rural South Africans date from approximately the 1940s.
Goldblatt became a full-time photographer in 1963. He has worked as photography director and associate editor for
Gordon became a freelance photojournalist in the 1980s. She also specializes in portraiture. She was the director of the Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and have been published in numerous books and periodicals.
Grendon is a painter, curator, and freelance photographer whose photographic work dates from the 1980s. He was a member of Afrapix. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues.
In the 1960s, Hallett photographed District Six in Cape Town before the neighborhood's destruction under apartheid. Between 1970 and 1995 he left South Africa for Europe, where much of his work focused on South African artists in exile. In 1994 he was one of a group of photographers documenting the first democratic election in South Africa for the Independent Electoral Commission. He was later commissioned to record the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Hartman was an Afrapix member who photographed apartheid resistance in the 1980s.
Hemson was a labor activist in Durban during the 1970s. He went on to become a sociologist and the research director of the Human Sciences Research Council in Durban.
Hilton-Barber was a freelance journlist and a member of Afrapix. He was a founder of the SouthLight Photographic agency. During the 1990s he worked with several South African newspapers.
Konings was born in New Zealand and moved to Cape Town in 1975. He became a freelance photographer and graphic artist. His work dates from the 1970s, and has been included in several books.
Lawson has been a writer and photographer for the South African Council for Higher Education. She was a member of Afrapix. During the 1970s and 1980s her work focused on labor, women, and political activism; she later was moved to focus on HIV issues. She has published two books, one on working women and one on HIV.
Ledechowski is a freelance photographer who has worked on various documentary projects in South Africa, in photography and film. He was a member of Afrapix. His photographs and hand-tinted portraits have been exhibited in South Africa.
Lombard has worked as a freelance photographer and photojournalist. He was a founder of the Cape Town Press Centre. He has been CEO of espAFRIKA, organizer of a major South African jazz festival. His work has been exhibited in a number of group exhibitions in South Africa. He was a member of the art collective Vukalisa.
Maclennan was born in Scotland and grew up in South Africa. He is a press photographer, reporter, and editor whose work dates from the 1970s. He has worked for the South African Press Association. He worked as photographer on the Surplus People Project in 1982. His photographs have been shown in African group exhibitions and were published in various works during the early 1980s.
Matthews has worked as a freelance photojournalist and cameraman for international television networks, and he has been a member of the art collective Vukalisa. His photographs have been exhibited internationally.
Roger Meintjes' documentary work dates from the 1980s, during which time he was a member of the Afrapix collective. In the 1990s he was employed at the Robben Island Museum. Meintjies' photographs have been published in a number of books and magazines.
Mendel is a photojournalist who has worked for Agence France Press Photo Service. His photographs have appeared in
Miller was a member of Afrapix. His work appeared in the
Mofokeng freelanced through the Afrapix Photographers Collective, and has taught at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of Witwatersrand. His work has been exhibited in South Africa and at the Guggenheim Museum. He received the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography Award in 1996.
Morolong was a press photographer covering social events in East London. His work dates from the 1950s and was exhibited in East London in 2003.
[No biographical information is currently available for Nkosi.]
Nunn's photographs date from 1981, when he began documenting apartheid issues. His photographs focused especially on rural areas. He was a founding member of Afrapix. In 1994 he was one of a group of photographers documenting the first democratic election in South Africa for the Independent Electoral Commission.
Paddock was a journalist who was active in the End Conscription Campaign, and he was a member of Afrapix. in 1982 he was imprisoned for a year for refusing military conscription. Paddock died in the early 1990s.
Perez is a freelance photographer. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in South Africa and elsewhere.
Peters was active in the Black Conciousness Movement and the Natal Indian Congress. While a student, he was an associate member of Afrapix. His photographs appeared in group exhibitions in South Africa and in a number of books. Peters went on to receive a Masters in Development Studies and worked in the South African government.
Qwazi is a photographer whose work dates from the 1980s. His work has covered anti-apartheid struggle and has been exhibited in South Africa.
Rajgopaul is a freelance documentary photographer. He was a member of Afrapix. He has been awarded the Earnest Cole Scholarship for Documentary Photography.
Schwegmann was a freelance photojournalist working for Reuters in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a member of Afrapix. Her photographs are held in the South African National Gallery. Schwegmann went on to work for Reuters in London.
Tillim began photographing professionally in 1986, and was a member of Afrapix. Since the 1990s, he has photographed throughout Africa and the world, often in war-torn areas. His work has received numerous awards, including the South African Mondi award for photojournalism, the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award, the Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Photography, and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
Vallie was a member of Afrapix. She documented anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s.
Weinberg has been photographing professionally since 1978 and was a founder of the collective Afrapix. In addition to his own work which examines people, cultures, and human environments, he has photographed on assignment for newspapers, magazines, and non-governmental organizations. In 1993, Weinberg won a Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography Award. He is the Curator at the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town and was instrumental in supporting the series of projects represented in part by the photographic work in this collection.
Williams is a freelance photographer who works on documentary projects and magazine photography. Beginning in 1988, he worked for Reuters covering the resistance to apartheid and the movement toward African National Congress rule. His more recent color work focuses on the details of people’s lives as a means of exploring change and the lack of change in contemporary South African society. He has published a number of books.
Wissema was a pioneering woman photographer and documentary photographer. She was born in Holland and emigrated to South Africa. She is known for her published photographs of District Six in Cape Town before the neighborhood's destruction in the 1960s. Her work spans the 1940s through the 1970s.
Wulfson is a freelance photographer. In the early 1980s, she worked for the
The South Africa Documentary Photographs Collection consists of four series of photographs documenting South African social conditions during and after apartheid, dating from approximately 1940 to 2007:
The Beyond the Barricades Series consists of 82 unmatted 12x16" gelatin silver prints dating from 1980 to 1988. The photographs were taken as part of a project initiated by the collective photo agency Afrapix, which documented anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s. Events portrayed include funerals, conflicts with police, rallies and demonstrations, and other political gatherings. Individuals appearing in the photographs include Chief Buthelezi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President P.W. Botha, and activists such as Billy Nair. Numerous anti-apartheid organizations are also represented in the images. The photographs in this series were published in the book
The Cordoned Heart Series houses 191 gelatin silver prints, the bulk dating from between 1979 and 1984, taken by twenty South African photographers. There are both matted and unmatted prints. The series documents a crucial period of protest and social upheaval in South African history, focusing on poverty and the daily lives of people living under apartheid. Textual materials from the exhibit "South Africa: The Cordoned Heart," which appeared originally at the International Center of Photography in 1986, are also housed in this series; they include exhibit brochures and an exhibit installation guide.
The Then and Now Series consists of 160 prints taken by eight South African photographer sdocumenting South Africa before and after apartheid, ranging in date from 1963 to 2006. The series originated in a 2008 exhibition at Duke University curated by South African photographer Paul Weinberg, entitled "Then and Now: Eight South African Photographers. The exhibit comprised ten photographs from each photographer covering the period of apartheid and ten from the period following democratic elections in 1994. All of the images are available in an
The final series, Underexposed, is comprised of 602 prints documenting the work of eleven South African photographers. Prints are pigmented inkjet, gelatin silver, and color, with dates ranging from approximately the 1950s to 2007. The series originated in a project of the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town. The project emphasized photographers considered relatively unknown and underexposed, hence the name of the project. The series includes a significant number of women photographers. Photographs depict a variety of subjects, including political protest, family life, leisure, portraits, rural and impoverished social conditions, and labor conditions.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
Consists of 82 unmatted 12x16 gelatin silver prints dating from 1981 to 1988. The photographers were South Africans who were primarily members of Afrapix, the collective photo agency that documented resistance to apartheid in the 1980s. The images originated with the Afrapix documentary project "Beyond the Barricades." The project resulted in an exhibit and a book,
The photographs document social and political protest in South Africa during the 1980s; events include funerals, conflicts with police, rallies and demonstrations, and other political gatherings. Individuals appearing in the photographs include Chief Buthelezi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President P.W. Botha, and activists such as Billy Nair. Numerous anti-apartheid organizations are portrayed, including the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Leandra Youth Congress, the Natal Indian Congress, and the United Democratic Front (UDF).
The images were taken by twenty South African photographers: Omar Badsha, Julian Cobbing, Paul Grendon, Steve Hilton-Berber, Dave Hartman, Rashid Lombard, Roger Meintjies, Gideon Mendel, Eric Miller, Santu Mofokeng, Themba Nkosi, Cedric Nunn, Billy Paddock, Myron Peters, Chris Qwazi, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Guy Tillim, Zubeida Vallie, Gille de Vlieg, and Paul Weinberg. There are also six prints by unidentified photographers. The series is arranged alphabetically by photographer.
Photographs are not dated or captioned. The bulk of the photographs are described in the book
Photographs, 12x16 gelatin silver prints, document South African political organizations and individuals: the ANC Women's League, the United Democratic Front (UDF), Inkatha, and Chief Buthelezi. They depict protests, strikes, police confronting activists, and other events under apartheid. .
Photographs document protest by the ANC and the UDF.
Photographs include FEDTRAW protest, police violence, and a speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Photograph depicts a funeral following a police shooting.
Photographs depict protest and UNC and UDF funerals.
Photographs depict the Port Elizabeth Youth Congress, funerals, and protest.
Photograph depicts a United Women's Organization protest.
Photographs depict ANC and UDF protest.
Photographs depict UDF protests, funerals, police and right-wing violence, and other events of protest and violence under apartheid.
Photographs depict the National Union of Mine Workers and COSATU events.
Photograph depicts mourning for the death of an ANC member.
Photograph depicts police and the body of a protester.
Photographs depict Inkatha.
Photographs depict funerals and Pondo/Zulu violence.
Photograph depicts the Natal Indian Congress.
Photograph captures police and funeral mourners.
Photograph depicts a labor strike.
Photographs represent a funeral, a rally, and vigilante violence.
Photograph of a funeral.
Photographs document the UDF, the ANC, the Leandra Youth Congress, the Food and Allied Workers Union, and other groups under apartheid.
Photographs depict protest, families, a jazz event, and portrayals of everyday life.
The Cordoned Heart Series is a collection of 191 matted and unmatted gelatin silver prints of images taken by South African photographers and dating from between 1979 and 1984. Also contains digital versions of the images and textual materials from the exhibit "South Africa: The Cordoned Heart," curated by Alex Harris, Margaret Sartor, and Cornell Capa. The images derive from the Cordoned Heart exhibit, which appeared originally at the International Center of Photography in 1986 and toured for a number of years afterwards. The Cordoned Heart exhibit was the culmination of a documentary project by the photographic collective Afrapix, as part of the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in South Africa. An accompanying book,
The series documents a crucial period of protest and social upheaval in South African history, focusing on poverty and the daily lives of people living under apartheid. Photographs depict neighborhoods, rural and urban residences, social life, families, work conditions, events in South African history such as forced relocations, and scenes of political or labor conflict.
Twenty photographers are represented: Paul Alberts, Joseph Alphers, Omar Badsha, Michael Barry, Bee Berman, Michael Davies, David Goldblatt, Paul Konings, Lesley Lawson, Chris Ledechowski, Rashid Lombard, Ben Maclennan, Jimi Matthews, Gideon Mendel, Cedric Nunn, Myron Peters, Berney Perez, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Wendy Schwegmann, and Paul Weinberg. Textual materials include exhibit brochures and an exhibit installation guide. There is also a limited edition portfolio with ten signed photographs selected from the exhibit. Many of the photographs are also available as digital images mounted on the library server; please contact a reference archivist for access.
The Cordoned Heart Series is physically arranged by size of prints and matting. In some cases, prints grouped by size and mat size have variable window sizes. Photographs are arranged in the finding aid by photographers, listed alphabetically. Textual materials are placed at the end of the series; materials for the Cordoned Heart portfolio are with the original photographs rather than the portfolio prints.
All matted prints except the ten Cordoned Heart portfolio prints show dates and captions. The portfolio prints are captioned in the accompanying text. Unmatted prints are not dated or captioned, but dates and captions for some are listed in the textual materials at the end of the series, based on the book
Images depict scenes from Capetown and rural areas with subjects such as unemployed men, children playing, families, and women cooking.
Images show unemployed and working men as well as soccer and other activities in rural areas.
Photographs depict daily life of unemployed men, pensioners, people at home, people plastering a house, a funeral, street scenes, and township scenes; also included are religous events, protest meetings and march, and a pension payout. Some images were shot in urban and rural Lesoto.
Portraits and scenes from Haven Night Shelter make up this grouping of images by Barry.
Images depict a municipal compound and a religious event.
Contains images of children at an amusement park.
Photographs depict bus commuters, a woman protesting on the street, and Desmond Tutu speaking at a funeral.
Konings' images capture scenes from migrant labor camps.
Images are portraits of a man and child from a rural settlement and of cleaners.
Photographs show Crossroads squatter camp, temporary shelters, and agricultural scenes.
Images were taken at a political demonstration.
Photographs document migrant work life, depicting scenes at a gold mine hostel, people being removed to other lands, trucking, and a mine workers' compound. Other images show rural scenes, socializing, and families.
Photograph of a man shearing a sheep.
Images show a rural family, women, children, and an old man.
Nunn's photographs capture scenes at an industrial park and a woman indoors.
Images feature a funeral, a body on the street, and a woman outdoors.
Images include events and daily life such as a political meeting and men selling carpets.
Images show women gardeners and portraits of men. 11x14 prints were sent from Rajgopaul to the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, separately from the Cordoned Heart exhibition.
Images capture life in the rural areas, focusing on schoolrooms, landscapes, men, women, and children. Other images show forced removals, a funeral, a vigil with Desmund Tutu, women voting, and former gang members.
Images taken by Weinberg include portraits and scenes depicting farm workers, union meetings, prison labor, strikes.
These six prints by unidentified photographers depict farmworkers, an election, and rural landscapes in South Africa.
Consists of 160 prints documenting South Africa before and after apartheid. The series originated in a 2008 exhibition at Duke University curated by South African photographer Paul Weinberg, and includes the work of eight South African photographers: David Goldblatt, George Hallett, Eric Miller, Cedric Nunn, Guy Tillim, Paul Weinberg, Graeme Williams, and Gisèle Wulfsohn. The exhibition featured twenty photographs from each photographer: ten photographs taken during apartheid, and ten taken during the period following democratic elections in 1994. All of the images are available in an
Arranged alphabetically by photographer. Many of the photographs are also available as digital images mounted on the library server; please contact a reference archivist for access.
Goldblatt's images show National Party supporters, landscapes, and life in rural and urban South Africa.
Includes photographs of Cape Town's District Six before its destruction under apartheid, two women meeting Nelson Mandela, scenes from urban life, and depictions of religious ceremonies in Johannesburg and Cape Town from 1994 to 2004.
Images depict protests, arrests, police and military operations, as well as images from a mental hospital, everyday life, and religious ceremonies and street festivals.
Collection includes portraits of men, women and families, a funeral, weddings, and life in post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Includes photographs depicting rival groups fighting for control of a settlement in Cape Town in 1986, life in Transkei, an election rally, and urban life in Johannesburg.
Images depict life in 1980s Johannesburg, protests, rural life, outdoor scenes, and political rallies.
Images depict a crowd clashing with police, a protester killed during a march, a clinic, and life in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 1997-2005.
Includes images of an election polling station, children in Durban and Pretoria, urban life in Johannesburg, and portraits of men, women and children, including people afflicted with HIV and AIDS.
Audio mp3 file recording the opening event for the Then and Now exhibit at Duke University. The file has been mounted to the library server; please consult with a reference archivist for access.
The Underexposed Series documents the work of South African photographers, originating from a project of the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town. The project collected the work of South African documentary photographers, with an emphasis on photographers considered relatively unknown and underexposed, including a significant number of women photographers. Photographs feature a variety of subjects, including South African political protest, family life, leisure, portraits, rural and impoverished social conditions, and labor conditions. Eleven photographers are included: Rodney Barnett, Arthur Bolton, Basil Breakey, Anne Fischer, Jenny Gordon, David Hemson, Daniel Morolong (some of whose work was created in the earliest years), Cedric Nunn, Graeme Williams, Janje Wissema, and Gisèle Wulfsohn.
The series includes approximately 50 digital prints from each photographer, as well as a smaller number of gelatin silver prints. The series contains 602 photographs, including both color and black and white images. Digital prints are 11.7x16.5 pigmented inkjet prints on Epson Archival Matte Paper. Prints were distributed to both the Centre for Curating the Archive and Duke University's Archive of Documentary Arts. Photographs are planned to be made available online through the University of Cape Town.
Prints are grouped by photographer. The gelatin silver prints of one photographer, Graeme Williams, are arranged in five topical subseries, and appear first. All other photographers are arranged in alphabetical order.
The Graeme Williams photographs are arranged by subseries, with titles assigned by the photographer. There are five topical subseries arranged in alphabetical order, of 8x10 gelatin silver prints:
The subseries consists of 5x7 color reference prints. Prints are a mixture of documentary photography and reproductions of paintings and other artwork.
The subseries consists of 8.25x8.5 color prints. It is drawn from a University of Cape Town commission for an exhibit in the university's Chemical Engineering Building. Photographs are formal portraits of mine workers individually or in groups, posed in their working environment.
Prints are 8x10 gelatin silver. The bulk are portraits of children at home or outside. Photographs were taken in Hlabisa, KwaZulu-Natal.
The 8x10 gelatin silver prints portray the recreation and family life of members of a Johannesburg group household that included Williams. Themes include outdoor recreation, nudes, parents and children, and scenes of life at home. A list of captions taken from the photographer's website is with the photographs.
Prints are 8x10 gelatin silver. They depict staff and patients at a Catholic AIDS hospice in Kensington, Johannesburg.
Prints are 8x10 gelatin silver and depict two black dogs playing on a beach at Pringle Bay, near Cape Town.
The subseries covers a variety of themes and geographic locations, some outside South Africa. The quality of the digitization is below that of the series as a whole.
The bulk of the subseries consists of formal portraits of men, women, and children in African dress. Some are studio portraits and some are posed in outdoor settings.
Photographs in the subseries show jazz musicians, bands, audiences, instruments, and other jazz-related themes.
Themes include scenes of rural village life and portraiture.
The Jenny Gordon photographs are arranged by subseries, with titles assigned by the photographer. There are three topical subseries:
The subseries consists of portraits of men, women and children primarily at home in Merewent, Durhan.
Consists of portraits of men and women in and around a migrant worker hostel in Johannesburg.
The subseries consists of portraits in Hillbrow and other Johannesburg inner city suburbs. Subjects are primarily portrayed at home.
The subseries focuses on political protest, especially anti-apartheid marches. There are also photographs of industrial settings and workers.
The Daniel Morolong photographs depict posed groups or informally gathered groups of South Africans, especially at social events at clubs and other locations. There are many photographs of Morolong's family at home, at the beach, and elsewhere.
The bulk of the Cedric Nunn photographs feature scenes and portraits taken in rural South Africa and impoverished urban areas, depicting rural villages, urban street scenes, and inhabitants.
The bulk of the photographs in this subseries are portraits of children and adults on the street and at home.
The bulk of the photographs are portraits, with a focus on women. Includes portraits of women political activists such as Amina Cachalia, Thandi Modise, and Ray Alexander Simons. There are also scenes of families and friends at home or at play.