Alfred Kumalo’s
photographs, many of which are famous around the world, capture intense and
captivating moments in South African history. Alf Kumalo was born in
Johannesburg on September 5th, 1930, and attended college at
Wilberforce Institute at Evaton. Kumalo began working as a journalist for Bantu
World where he took pictures to go along with his stories. He
didn't have any training with photography, but they seemed to love his
work! A few years later he found a permanent job at Golden City Post. Throughout
the years, Kumalo had documented the history of South Africa. Along with
photographing actions of the Apartheid, he photographed the Student Uprising of
1976, the 1980s State Emergency, and the unbanning of the
liberation movements, the Codesa talks, the first democratic elections, and the
beginning of South Africa’s first democratic government. Kumalo was very
privileged to attend these historical scenes, given the fact that there was the
possibility of arrest and harassment. Kumalo was influential to South Africa
and apartheid because his photographs showed the intensity and brutality of the
effects of what happened during that period of time. He also took many pictures
of Nelson Mandela, before and after he was imprisoned. In the 1990s, as apartheid fell, Kumalo photographed
the country’s first democratic elections and the inauguration of Mandela as its
first black president. “Alf Kumalo was more than a documentary
photojournalist; he was, above all, one of South Africa’s eminent historians,”
a former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, said in a statement. “No one
could contradict the truth of what he captured so competently through the lens.
Aware that the power of his narrative was unimpeachable, the apartheid regime
subjected him to constant harassment in the hope that Kumalo, a humble and
tenacious man of integrity, would abandon his work or sell his soul altogether.
He did not.” Alf Kumalo died on October 21st, 2012, in
Johannesburg. I personally really enjoyed
looking at Kumalo’s photos. They are very intense and the fact that the
pictures are in black and white make the pictures really dark and heavy, which
is how people felt during these times. There is something about Kumalo’s
pictures that show a lot more emotion and intensity than a regular 1970s
picture. His keenness to actually experience the hardship of apartheid just so
that he could get a photo is very admirable. I think that him doing that and
me, knowing that he did that, is what makes me see the picture differently than
I had the first time I saw his work. I really liked doing research on Alfred
Kumalo. He is unlike any other photographer I've come across and, yes
I actually do look at professional photographers from time to time. I
absolutely love taking pictures and I think it would be very fun to be
professional! One thing, that I can say that I got from looking at Kumalo’s
pictures is I think I'll be using the black and white effect on some of my
pictures. It really does tell a completely different story from the original
colors. -Bea M
·
Weber, Bruce. "Alf Kumalo, Whose
Photography Indicated Apartheid, Dies At 82." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Nov. 20012. Web. 19
Dec. 2013.
·
"Alf
Kumalo." Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9634223/Alf-Kumalo.html.
Telegraph, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
I liked your topic to be honest. I ended up looking up some of his photos and when it comes to looking them up and stuff I liked it too, They were really interesting. You could see how bad it was in his pictures. Like in one I found it showed a man getting attacked by a German Shepard.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you described looking at his pictures. You can tell you liked having this as a topic and found it interesting.
I don't really have a question. Good job!
-Kennedy Donoho