Peter Magubane
Encyclopedia
Early life
He was born in Vrededorp, now PageviewPageview, Gauteng
Pageview is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region 8.Originally populated by non-whites including Cape Malays and Indians, it was commonly known as Fietas....
, a suburb in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
and grew up in Sophiatown
Sophiatown, Gauteng
Sophiatown is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.Sophiatown was a legendary black cultural hub that was destroyed under Apartheid, rebuilt under the name by Triomf, and in 2006 officially returned to its original name.Sophiatown was one of the oldest black areas in Johannesburg and its...
. He started taking some photographs using a Kodak Brownie
Brownie (camera)
Brownie is the name of a long-running and extremely popular series of simple and inexpensive cameras made by Eastman Kodak. The Brownie popularized low-cost photography and introduced the concept of the snapshot. The first Brownie, introduced in February, 1900, was a very basic cardboard box camera...
box camera as a schoolboy.
In 1954 he read a copy of Drum, a magazine known for its reporting of urban blacks and the effects of apartheid. They were dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. I wanted to be part of that magazine.
He started at Drum as a driver. After six months of odd jobs, he was given a photography assignment under the mentorship of Jürgen Schadeberg
Jürgen Schadeberg
-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
, the chief photographer. He borrowed a camera and covered the 1955 ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
convention. I went back to the office with good results and never looked back.
Being on assignment in the early years wasn't easy. We were not allowed to carry a camera in the open if the police were involved, so I often had to hide my camera to get the pictures I wanted. On occasion I hid my camera in a hollowed-out Bible, firing with a cable release in my pocket. At another time, at a trial in Zeerust from which the press were banned, I hid my Leica 3G in a hollowed-out loaf of bread and pretended to eat while I was actually shooting pictures; when the bread went down, I bought milk and hid the camera in the carton. And I got away with it. You had to think fast and be fast to survive in those days.
Magubane photographed most of South Africa's historic moments e.g. Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's Rivonia
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system.-Origins:...
trial in 1964 and also Sharpeville
Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal . After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69...
in 1960. He later recalled I had never seen so many dead people. His editor wanted to know why he hadn't taken any close-ups. Magubane then decided I was not going to get emotionally involved, or at least not until after I have done my work.
Middle and later years
He left Drum to become a freelancerFreelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
. In 1967, he was employed by the Rand Daily Mail. In 1969, he was sent to photograph a demonstration outside Winnie Mandela
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is a South African politician who has held several government positions and headed the African National Congress Women's League. She is currently a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee...
's jail cell. He was arrested, interrogated and then put in solitary confinement. The charges were dropped in 1970. However, Magubane was banned from photography for five years. In 1971 he was imprisoned again and spent 98 days in solitary confinement and then spent six months in jail.
Following his release, Mugabane was assigned to cover the Soweto riots which occurred from June through to August 1976. He was arrested, beaten up and had his nose broken. Eventually, he was released at the end of 1976. The series of pictures he took brought him international recognition and acclaim.
This led to other opportunities. He worked on assignments for Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, the UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and for Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
(where he photographed a series about the teenage runner Zola Budd
Zola Budd
Zola Pieterse, better known by her maiden name of Zola Budd , is a former Olympic track and field competitor who, in less than three years, twice broke the world record in the women's 5000 metres and twice was the women's winner at the World Cross Country Championships...
).
In 2005, Magubane spent time in hospital recovering from buckshot wounds received when he was caught in police crossfire at a funeral near Johannesburg.
In 2006, the South African Post Office
South African Post Office
South African Post Office or SAPO is the national postal service of South Africa and is owned by the South African government. It employs over 17,000 people and operates more than 2,400 postal outlets throughout the country.-History:...
issued a miniature sheet, commemorative envelope and a special canceller on National Women's Day
National Women's Day
National Women's Day is an annual public holiday in South Africa on August 9. This commemorates the national march of women on this day in 1956 to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of...
. This commemorates the march on 9 August 1956 when 20,000 women from all parts of South Africa staged a second march on the Union Buildings
Union Buildings
The Union Buildings form the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa. The imposing buildings are located in Pretoria, atop Meintjieskop at the Northern end of Arcadia, close to historic Church Square and the Voortrekker Monument...
to protest against the pass laws
Pass laws
Pass laws in South Africa were designed to segregate the population and limit severely the movements of the non-white populace. This legislation was one of the dominant features of the country's apartheid system. The Black population were required to carry these pass books with them when outside...
. They left petitions containing more than 100,000 signatures at the Prime Minister's door. The photograph used on the miniature sheet
Miniature sheet
A souvenir sheet or miniature sheet is a small group of postage stamps still attached to the sheet on which they were printed. They may be either regular issues that just happen to be printed in small groups , or special issues often commemorating some event, such as a national anniversary,...
was taken by Peter Magubane during the march and features some of the women who led the 1956 march: Lilian Ngoyi
Lilian Ngoyi
Lillian Masediba Ngoyi "Ma Ngoyi", , was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, and helped launch the Federation of South African Women.Ngoyi joined the ANC Women's League in 1952; she was at that stage a...
, Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph , a South African anti-apartheid activist, was born in Easebourne near Midhurst West Sussex, England and graduated from King's College London, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph...
, Sophia Williams-De Bruyn
Sophia Williams-De Bruyn
Sophia Williams-De Bruyn is a former South African anti-apartheid activist.Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, Williams-De Bruyn rose from working in the Van Lane Textile factory to become an executive member of the Textile Workers Union in Port Elizabeth...
and Rahima Moosa.
Lately, Magubane has stopped doing photojournalism
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
and has concentrated on art photography. He is documenting the surviving tribal ways in post-apartheid South Africa in colour. These photographs have been published under the African Heritage Series banner.
Books
- Black As I Am / Zindzi Mandela and Peter Magubane ; foreword Andrew Young, Los Angeles Guild of Tutors Press, 1978, ISBN 0-89-615001-1
- Magubane's South Africa / by Peter Magubane ; with a foreword by Ambassador Andrew YoungAndrew YoungAndrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, distributed by Random House. 1978, ISBN 0-43-627120-6 - Soweto / photographed by Peter Magubane text, Marshall Lee; contributing and picture editor, Dawn Lindberg, Cape Town: Don Nelson, 1978, ISBN 0-90-923832-4 (2nd ed. 1983)
- Soweto Speaks / Jill Johnson, photographs by Peter Magubane, Johannesburg: A. D. Donker, 1979, ISBN 0-94-993763-0
- Black Child, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1982, ISBN 0-39-451445-9
- June 16 : the fruit of fear, Braamfontein: Skotaville, 1986, ISBN 0-94-700913-2
- Soweto : the fruit of fear, Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1986, ISBN 0-86-543040-3 (reissue of June 16: the fruit of fear)
- Soweto: portrait of a city / photography by Peter Magubane; text by David Bristow, Stan Motjuwadi; [foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu]. London: New Holland, 1990 ISBN 1853680516
- Women of South Africa: their fight for freedom / photographs by Peter Magubane, text by Carol Lazar. Boston MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1993 ISBN 0821219286
- Nelson Mandela, man of destiny: a pictorial biography, Cape Town: Don Nelson, 1996, ISBN 1-86-806123-X
- Vanishing Cultures of South Africa : changing customs in a changing world, Cape Town: Struik, 1998, ISBN 1-86-825967-6 (The Xhosa—The Zulu—The Ndebele—The Venda—The Tsonga—The Basotho—The Tswana—The Pedi—The Ntwana—The San)
- African Renaissance, Cape Town: Struik, 2000, ISBN 1-86-872413-1
- African Heritage Series:
- Homesteads, Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, Cape Town: Struik, 2001, ISBN 9-78-186872517-5
- Dress and Adornment, Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, 2001, ISBN 9-78-186872514-4
- Ceremonies, Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, Cape Town: Struik. 2001, ISBN 1-86-872515-4
- Soweto, Peter Magubane and Charlene Smith, Cape Town: Struik, 2001, ISBN 1-86-872584-7
- African Heritage Series:
- Arts and Crafts, Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, Cape Town: Struik, 2001, ISBN 1-86-872836-6
- The BaNtwane: Africa's undiscovered people, Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, Cape Town: Struik, 2001, ISBN 1-86-872564-2
- AmaNdebele / Peter Magubane, text by Sandra Klopper, Sunbird, 2005, ISBN 1-91-993806-0
Film and video
- Peter Magubane appears as himself in the 1998 documentary Dying to Tell the Story
- BBC Millennium diaries - Peter Magubane Photographer. "Having recorded the turbulent events in South Africa over the past 45 years on camera he tells of the journey to his homeland of today".
Selected group exhibitions
- 2001 - Soweto – A South African Myth - Photographs from the 1950s (by Alf KhumaloAlf KhumaloAlfred Kumalo is a South African photographer.-Overview:Alf Kumalo was born in Alexandra near Johannesburg. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could...
, Ernest ColeErnest Cole-Overview:Ernest Cole was a black South African born in Eersterust in Pretoria, in 1940.He left school when the Bantu Education Act was put in place, and instead completed his matric via correspondance...
and Jürgen SchadebergJürgen Schadeberg-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
). The core of the exhibition is the student uprising of 1976. This includes some of Peter Magubane's work.
Awards
- 1958 - First black South African to win a photographic prize in the country – first and third prizes were awarded to him for Best Press pictures of the year.
- 1986 - Robert Capa Award
- 1992 - Special Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism
- 1995 - Martin Luther King Luthuli Award
- 1997 - Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
Foundation and Leica Cameras - 1997 - Fellowship by the Tom Hopkinson School of Journalism and Cultural Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff
- 1999 - Order for Meritorious ServiceOrder for Meritorious ServiceThe Order for Meritorious Service was an award in South Africa which ran from 1986-2002 and was the country's highest honor. It was awarded to South Africans who have rendered exceptional public service. It was awarded to people by the order of the President...
Class II from President MandelaNelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing... - 2003 - Honorary doctorate degree from the University of South AfricaUniversity of South AfricaThe University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
- 2010 - Cornell CapaCornell CapaCornell Capa was a Hungarian American photographer, member of Magnum Photos, and photo curator, and the younger brother of photo-journalist and war photographer Robert Capa. Graduating from Imre Madách Gymnasium in Budapest, he initially intended to study medicine, but instead joined his brother...
Infinity Award from the International Center of PhotographyInternational Center of PhotographyThe International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States... - 2010 - Honorary doctorate degree from Columbia College (Chicago)Columbia College ChicagoColumbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...