University News Last updated 11 March 2010
Apartheid South Africa is the focus of a book on photography by Birmingham City University academic Darren Newbury.
Defiant Images is the first book-length historical study of photography in apartheid South Africa and makes a significant contribution to research on documentary photography in the twentieth century. It tells the story of South African photography and its photographers during a critical period in the history of the country by recording the individual efforts of photographers to document the society around them, acknowledging both their courage and their creativity.
Darren Newbury explains: “2010 is a year of significant anniversaries for South Africa: in February the country celebrated 20 years since the release of Nelson Mandela and the beginning of the end of the apartheid era; this month (March) the country will commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, when 69 people were killed by police at an anti-pass protest. “Photography played an important role in bringing events in South Africa to the attention of the wider world. My intention of this book is to explore the complex histories that lay behind these images of a society in conflict.”
The chapter on Ernest Cole is the first major account of the life and work of one of Africa’s most important photographers, exiled from South Africa in 1967. Other chapters contribute to an understanding of the photographers Constance Stuart Larrabee and Leon Levson, the Drum magazine school of photography and the struggle photography of the 1980s. The book is based on interviews with photographers, editors and curators, and analysis of photographs held in collections and displayed in museums.
Former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Albie Sachs, wrote the foreword to the book. He said: “This book provides an inspiring record of what photography can achieve even in dire circumstances. In a compelling manner, it shows how the camera can make the world not only see itself, but be proud of itself. The struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid was one of the great freedom struggles of the last century. This book honours the photographers who made special and creative contributions to that struggle.”
Defiant Images is published by University of South Africa Press.
ENDS