Famed Life Magazine Photographer’s Apartheid Era Work on Show in Cape Town

See Margaret Bourke-White’s rare, striking imagery of life in South Africa at the beginning of the Nationalist Party’s rule

The thought-provoking Photos in Black and White: Margaret Bourke-White and the Dawn of Apartheid in South Africa visual exhibition is on at the Michaelis Galleries in Orange Street from Thursday, 3 April until Wednesday, 7 May 2014.

Originally curated by Indiana University historian Alex Lichtenstein for display in America in mid-2013, the collection has made its way to Mzansi to showcase a number of rare and unpublished images taken by the famed Life magazine photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White while on her travels through South Africa during 1949 and 1950.

The exhibit is comprised of a total of 40 images, of which only 11 were published. Lichtenstein secured publishing rights for the remaining photos from Getty Images to bring to light an evocative selection of pictures that reveal the inequalities of the period.

Following the elections in 1948 and the Afrikaner nationalist government instituting the undemocratic Apartheid regime, the trailblazing photographer spent four months capturing the exploitive environment of miners as well as life as a black South African under this oppressive administration.

Obsessed with being on the scene while history is being made, Bourke-White is, arguably, one of the world’s greatest photojournalists of the 20th century. Her career behind the lens started in the late 20s, and she worked as an industrial photographer before moving on to Henry Luce’s news magazine (Life) in the 30s. From capturing the economic crisis in America during the Depression to documenting the release of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp after Germany’s defeat in the Second World War (World War II), Bourke-White was a pioneer who paved the way for female photographers.

OPENING TIMES FOR THE MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

Entry to the exhibition is free, and the gallery is open in the week from Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 4pm and on Saturday from 10am to 1pm or by appointment. For more information or to schedule an alternative time, contact Josephine Higgins at +27 (0) 21 480 7170 or jm.higgins@uct.ac.za.

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