Picturing Apartheid

The author analyzes the social and documentary photography used in 4 recently
published books on South-Africa. The urgent question that arises: ""Can the
photographer, in seeking to represent the details of social reality, the
specific meanings that constitute social conceptions, participate in the
generation of new forms of power and expression?''. The books reviewed are:
Peter Magubane ""Soweto The Fruit of Fear'', David Goldblatt ""Lifetimes: Under
Apartheid'', Omar Badsha ""South Africa: The Cordoned Heart'', and Julie
Frederikse ""South Africa: A Different Kind of War: From Soweto to Pretoria''.
All these books draw on a tradition of ""realism'', ""advancing photography as
evidence and using an accompanying text to contextualize that evidence. At the
same time, these books articulate a variety of positions along a continuum of
ideological practices''.


Citaten:
Magubane, P.: Soweto The Fruit of Fear (1987)
Goldblatt, D.: Lifetimes: Under Apartheid (1987)
Badsha, O.: South Africa: The Cordoned Hart (1987)
Frederikse, J.: South Africa: A Different Kind of War (1987)