Alf Khumalo

Alfred Khumalo

9/5/1930-10/21/12

Alex Yancy A2

 Weber, Bruce Ociated. "N.H.L. ROUNDUP; Flyers Win Their Third in a Row." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2007. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.

 Cassel, Matthew. "Alf Kumalo: The Anti-apartheid Photographer." Fact-Based, In-Depth News. Al Jazeera, 7 Dec. 13. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.

Alfred "Alf" Khumalo was born on the fifth of September 1930 in Johannesburg. When he was young he loved taking pictures and he was captivated on the camera’s “power” to freeze time. His dream was to actually get paid to take pictures. He attended Wilberforce Institute in Evaton to further his education and get a degree in journalism. At first he changed oil for a mechanic to earn money so he could afford a good camera but eventually he was able to achieve his dream. He first began his career in photography when he was a journalist. He frequently sold articles to the newspaper “Bantu World” which he made even better through adding great pictures that he had taken to them as an illustration. Also, the paper was so small that the journalists had to take all of their pictures themselves but that’s not as special.  He later got a permanent job at a larger paper called the Golden Arrow. Khumalo covered many events including the Soweto uprising and the Black Consciousness movement. He is most famous in the photography world for his ability to be in the right place at the right time and at the right angle. He was also famous for being able being able to get candid pictures even out of terrible events such as protestors being attacked or jailed or even shot. He was also known for taking pictures of less political parts of the world there was a time when he would come to every one of Muhammad Ali’s to take pictures.

He was influential to apartheid because he was able to capture all of the important moments in his photographs, which were put in magazines all over the world. The amount of people against apartheid increased each time a new person looked at one of his great pictures in any number of magazines including Time and Life and newspapers such as the New York Times. He also took many pictures of Nelson Mandela before and after he was imprisoned.

I think that Mr. Khumalo was a very noble and determined man because he devoted himself to the group against apartheid and eventually he was able to help Nelson Mandela and F. W. De Klerk to make Apartheid illegal in South Africa. Taking a stand against the people in power takes a lot of courage and very few people are actually able to pull it off. Khumalo was able to help the cause through his amazing photographs, which are able to convey pure emotion. He was also determined to make sure that the story was told truthfully and that the police didn’t confiscate his pictures so he would go to drastic measures to hide the film.

If you want to learn more about Alfred Khumalo you can go to many different museums that showcase his photographs. There are many pictures from the apartheid era but there are also pictures of famous celebrities such as Muhammad Ali and tennis player Arthur Ashe and the Rev. Desmond Tutu. Here are a few of his pictures taken during Apartheid.