© Ian Berry, 1969, South Africa
A young Black nanny, scarcely more than a child herself, looks after a baby girl for a white family.
In post-World War II South Africa the ruling National Party developed a system of government that discriminated against Black, Coloured* and Asian people to protect the rights and privileges of the white minority. This system of segregation and prejudice was called apartheid, a word translated from Afrikaans meaning ‘apartness’.
The National Party, led by DF Malan, came to power in South Africa in 1948. Previous governments had already implemented segregationist policies, however the National Party now set out to enshrine this in law. Different racial groups were forced to live separately and unequally under a regime of political, legal, and economic discrimination.
The Population Registration Act (1950) grouped all South Africans into three racial categories: Bantu (Black African), white, or Coloured*. The Group Areas Act (1950) started the physical separation between groups, establishing racial areas known as ‘Homelands’. Such laws were an early and clear statement of intent by the regime.
*Terminology used:
Under the apartheid regime, ‘Coloured’ was a term used for someone who was not considered Black African or white under South African law. It is an outdated term in the UK today. (source)
I wonder when terms like ‘Black’ and ‘White’ will be outdated terms for categorizing human beings. What ‘genius’ came up with that B&W idea? In my opinion, ‘Coloured’ would be the perfect term for every single human being - who wants to be colorless anyways?
© Ian Berry, Mar. 21, 1960, Sharpeville / South Africa
Crowds fleeing as police open fire on peaceful protestors, killing at least 69 and injuring 180 people (Sharpeville Massacre)
The African National Congress (ANC), formed in 1912, was one of many opposition groups, including the South African Coloured People’s Organisation (SACPO), the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (INCLM) and the United Democratic Front (UDF). After becoming impatient with peaceful protests against the apartheid regime, several ANC members broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959.
On 21 March 1960 the PAC organized a protest in Sharpeville, a town south of Johannesburg. The aim was to highlight the injustices of the Pass Laws, which required Black Africans to carry a pass book at all times that contained personal and employment information. The pass book was seen as a symbol of apartheid. Despite the non-violent nature of the protest it was brutally suppressed by armed police. Eyewitness accounts tell of the inhumane way the crowd was sprayed with gunfire without warning. At least 69 people were killed and over 180 were injured.
Sharpeville was just one of many human rights abuses in apartheid South Africa. It happened to be recorded by Ian Berry, the only photojournalist present on the day. His photographs were later used in the trial proving the victims’ innocence. (source)
© Ian Berry, 1994, South Africa
Supporters climb to every vantage point whilst awaiting the arrival of Nelson Mandela in a Natal township.
In post-war South Africa the government gradually developed a policy to retain the rights and privileges of the white minority – apartheid. Although other societies experienced racial prejudices, South Africa was the only government to institutionalise and regulate segregation, often producing bizarre situations. The notion of this duty to ‘live apart’ whilst occupying the same space is documented in Ian Berry’s photographs. (read more)
© Bruce Davidson, 1964, Los Angeles
This photograph was used for the cover of the Beastie Boys’ triple-platinum album “Ill Communication”:
© Marc Riboud, 2000, Illustration du code binaire, Silicon Valley
This photograph is part of the book ‘Choses vues’.
André Velter’s text, “The world according to Marc” accompanies the pictures. He encourages us to look for a poetic dimension:
“Life like a picture book beyond time, traveling the world from moment to moment… that seems a heedless meandering, but emotions are always present. As if his viewfinder only fixed the most subjective moments, he favors the fleeting, the echoes, a collusion with subjects and things doing as they wish, gathering the effects and signs of a collective soul.
Following such a memory trail, of luck, humanity, forgetfulness, we see how much this constantly changing prodigy is above all the result of an internal light that puts roads, deserts, cities, reflections and movements under one spotlight.” (read more)
© Marc Riboud, undated, Maryland / USA
“The idea of photography as evidence is pure bullshit. A photo is no more proof of any reality than what you may hear being said by someone in a bus. We only record details, small fragments of the world. This cannot allow any judgement, even if the sum of these details may convey a point of view.” (Marc Riboud)
Constantine Manos - Personal Documentary | Leica & Magnum / VIDEO
Constantine Manos was born in 1934 in South Carolina to Greek immigrant parents. He went on to attend the University of South Carolina, from which he graduated in 1955. Joining Magnum Photos in 1963, he then became a full Member in 1965.
This video is a personal documentary of Manos’ wide-ranging subjects - from desegregation in the American South to life in Greece and his later work throughout America which he shot in color.
Find an interesting interview with Manos here.
» find more videos HERE « | » find more of Magnum Photos here «
© Constantine Manos, 1966, Death of a G.I., South Carolina / USA
Aunt (who’d adopted the soldier) at the funeral of her nephew killed in Vietnam. See more photos of this series here.
“Being educated in the segregated South turned me into an activist, although I was isolated in the pursuit of my feelings regarding the ills of segregation. Growing up in a Greek household in which Greek was spoken, living in a Greek community, I felt that I was an outsider in mainstream society. I thought then the United States and its people were strange but fascinating.” (Constantine Manos; read more)
© Robert Doisneau, 1953, Le Muguet du Métro
“A photographer who made a picture from a splendid moment, an accidental pose of someone or a beautiful scenery, is the finder of a treasure.” (Robert Doisneau - in the Dutch Photomagazine “Foto” April 1983)
Thank you for so many beautiful treasures Mr. Doisneau!
Today would have been his 100th birthday - if you haven’t seen it already, also Google celebrates this day:
© Christopher Anderson, 2007, Venezuela
“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego’.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
© Marc Riboud, 1953, The Painter of the Eiffel Tower, Paris
“I walked up the tower, maybe one hour of walking. Some people ask me, “Did you ask the painter for permission?” I said, “My goodness, no. To talk with them was to risk slipping and falling down.” I’ve always been shy and I’ve always been trying to ignore the people I was photographing, so that they ignore me. I’m trying always to take a better picture than the one before but I was not sure of this one. I didn’t think after I shot the picture that I shot something interesting. I learned from Cartier-Bresson what’s called “geometry in photography.” It’s not dependent on what you’d call a good photograph, but good geometry.” (Marc Riboud)
Read an interesting interview with Marc Riboud from 1987 here.
Contact Sheet: (source)
© Gueorgui Pinkhassov / Magnum Photos, 1996, A hotel in the Akasaka area, Tokyo
See more pictures of the story here.
© Nicolas Tikhomiroff / Magnum Photos, 1970, William S. Burroughs, Paris
William S. Burroughs living in his small ”Hotel le Vieux Paris” on the Rue Git le Coeur on the Left Bank, 1970.
Elliott Erwitt on the art of photographic sequencing, BBC / VIDEO
The book Sequentially Yours collects a series of vignettes by legendary photographer Elliott Erwitt.
Each photo is taken just moments apart with the sequence telling a story that is surprising, moving or simply funny.
The Paris-born photographer, whose Russian-Jewish family emigrated to the US in the late 1930s, got the idea when he was looking through the contact sheets of all his work.
He realised that “sometimes a story is better told by more pictures rather than one”.
The short stories about life and lovers, pets and children were shot all over the world during the past 60 years.
In his studio and apartment facing New York’s Central Park Erwitt told the BBC how patience is the key to getting a good sequence of photographs. (+)
» find more of Magnum Photos here « | » find more videos HERE «
© Jacob Aue Sobol, 2002, Tiniteqilaaq / Greenland
Sabine Maqe and her mother, Silpa, on their way home from the supermarket.
