Exhibition
ICP : Rise and Fall of Apartheid
Gille de Vlieg, Jean Sinclair, founding member of Black Sash, protesting in Jan Smuts Ave, Johannesberg, May 30, 1985. © Gille de Vlieg.
Greame Williams, Nelson Mandela with Winnie Mandela as he is released from the Victor Vester Prison, 1990. Courtesy the artist. © Greame Williams.
Peter Magubane, Sharpeville Funeral: More than 5,000 people were at the graveyard, May 1960. Courtesy Baileys African History Archive.
Greame Williams, Walter Sisulu and his wife Albertina at their Soweto home after his release from prison, 1989. Courtesy the artist. © Greame Williams.
Greame Williams, Right-wing groups gather in Pretoria's Church Square to voice their anger at the F. W. de Klerk government's attempts to transform the country, 1990. Courtesy the artist. © Greame Williams.
Gille de Vlieg, Coffins at the mass funeral held in KwaThema, Gauteng, July 23, 1985. © Gille de Vlieg.
Greame Williams, Portrait of Nelson Mandela painted on the grass of Soweto's largest football stadium during an election rally, 1994. Courtesy the artist. © Greame Williams.
Jurgen Schadeberg, Nelson Mandela, Treason Trial, 1958. Courtesy the artist.
Peter Magubane, Sharpeville Shooting, March 21, 1960. © International Center of Photography, gift of Dr. Peter Magubane.
Ranjith Kally, Chief Albert Luthuli, former President General of the African National Congress, Rector of Glasgow University and 1960 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, gagged by the government from having any of his words published in his country, confined to small area around his home near Stanger in Natal, April 1964. © Bailey Archives.
Gille de Vlieg, Pauline Moloise (mother of Ben), two women & Winnie Madikizela Mandela mourn at the Memorial Service for Benjamin Moloise, who was hanged earlier that morning. Khotso House, Johannesburg, October 18, 1985. © Gille de Vlieg.
Jurgen Schadeberg, The 29 ANC Women’s League women are being arrested by the police for demonstrating against the permit laws, which prohibited them from entering townships without a permit, 26th August 1952. Courtesy the artist.
Jurgen Schadeberg, 20 defiance campaign Leaders appear in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on a charge of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act, 26th August 1952. © Jurgen Schadeberg.
Alf Khumalo, South Africa goes on trial. Police outside the court. The whole world was watching when the three major sabotage trials started in Pretoria, Cape Town and Maritzburg. Outside the palace of Justice during the Rivonia Trial, 1963. Courtesy of Baileys African History Archive. ©Baileys African History Archive.
Gille de Vlieg, The street outside a meeting held to call on the Apartheid regime to stop harassing Winnie Madikizela Mandela. Johannesburg Centre, February 14, 1986. © Gille de Vlieg.
Greame Williams, Member of the ultra-right-wing AWB attends a rally with his girlfriend, Pretoria, 1991. Courtesy the artist. © Greame Williams.
Jodi Bieber, Protest against Chris Hani’s assassination, 1993. © Goodman Gallery Johannesburg.
Eli Weinberg, Crowd near the Drill Hall on the opening day of the Treason Trial, Johannesburg, December 19, 1956. Times Media Collection, Museum Africa, Johannesburg.
Eli Weinberg, Nelson Mandela portrait wearing traditional beads and a bed spread. Hiding out from the police during his period as the “black pimpernel,” 1961. Courtesy of IDAFSA.
Alf Khumalo, South Africa goes on trial. Police and crowd outside court. The whole world was watching when the three major sabotage trials started in Pretoria, Cape Town and Maritzburg. Outside the palace of Justice during the Rivonia Trial, 1963. Courtesy of Baileys African History Archive. ©Baileys African History Archive.
Gille de Vlieg, Jean Sinclair, founding member of Black Sash, protesting in Jan Smuts Ave, Johannesberg, May 30, 1985. © Gille de Vlieg.
The International Center of Photography is the first museum to offer a major retrospective of images of racial and ethnic separation in South Africa. More than five hundred documents make this a must see exhibition.
Rise and Fall of Apartheid is organized chronologically, beginning with the separation of whites and blacks and ending with its collapse and the release of Nelson Mandela. In Afrikaans, the word at first referred to a separation of residential neighborhoods, and only later to the suppression of civil rights for Africans, Asians and people of color. In the long battle to regain those rights, the role of photography was paramount. With the introduction of Apartheid in 1948, the medium became radically more effective. Every photograph, previously anthropological in nature, became a powerful instrument in the social, egalitarian and democratic struggle.
Few of the images on display at the ICP were commissioned by the press. Many were taken by photographers traveling in South Africa, working independently or in coordination with the anti-Apartheid movement. The photographs taken by South Africans themselves remain the best. Critical and incisive, they provide insight into both major events and the daily lives of the black population.
Through their pictures, Leon Levson, Eli Weinberg, David Goldblatt, Peter Magubane, Sam Nzima and Ernest Cole tell the story of their country’s fight against racism. Discovering their work is part of the duty of memory.
Jonas Cuénin
Rise and Fall of Apartheid :
Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life
September 14 - January 6, 2013
International Center of Photography
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Jonas Cuénin