Works by Jodi Bieber, David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, Thabiso Sekgala and Sue Williamson feature on Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life at the International Centre of Photography in New York.
Gille de Vlieg, Coffins at the mass funeral held in KwaThema, Gauteng, July 23, 1985. © Gille de Vlieg.
Works by Jodi Bieber, David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, Thabiso Sekgala and Sue Williamson feature on Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life at the International Centre of Photography in New York. This photographic exhibition examines the legacy of the apartheid system and how it penetrated even the most mundane aspects of social existence in South Africa, from housing, public amenities, transportation, to education, tourism, religion, and businesses. Complex, vivid, evocative, and dramatic, it includes nearly 500 photographs, films, books, magazines, newspapers, and assorted archival documents and covers more than 60 years of powerful photographic and visual production that form part of the historical record of South Africa. Several photographic strategies, from documentary to reportage, social documentary to the photo essay, were each adopted to examine the effects and after-effects of apartheid’s political, social, economic, and cultural legacy. Curated by Okwui Enwezor with Rory Bester, the exhibition proposes a complex understanding of photography and the aesthetic power of the documentary form and honors the exceptional achievement of South African photographers.
The exhibition runs from 14 September 2012–6 January 2013.
