Life Itself

Photography and South Africa

By: Simon A. Clarke

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Hardcover | 1 June 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
256 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.0 x 19.0 x 2.54

Hardcover

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Charting the photographic history of South Africa from colonialism to democracy, from early European photographers to work today by young South Africans, Life Itself explores how people, events and places have been depicted in photographic images over the decades. Featuring images from the heyday of Drum magazine and Black emergence to Peter Magubane's Soweto uprising pictures, David Goldblatt's In Boksburg and the photographers' collective Afrapix, as well as the struggles for freedom, the book carefully documents the visual representation of the nation. Simon A. Clarke concludes with post-apartheid documentary and art photography in the work of Andrew Tshabangu, Lindokuhle Sobekwa and others. Superbly illustrated, Life Itself helps to fill a gap in our understanding of the role of the camera in South African society over time.

'Life Itself is likely to be the most important book ever published on the history of South African photography. Simon A. Clarke's text is elucidating and the well-chosen photographs for the book are aesthetic and documentary at the same time.' Roger Ballen, artist/photographer

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