The University of Cape Town Photographs and Images Collection
University of Cape Town
The photographic archive in Special Collections has material that spans a period from the inception of photography to the present day, from fragile prints to digital format. Fox Talbot’s Pencil of Nature is a rare body of work that found its way to the African continent. Many of the early photographs are of Cape Town and its surrounds, reflecting its architecture, environment, and the city’s early development. There is also a considerable archive reflecting UCT’s memory and history. The archive houses social history and anthropology collections of Bleek and Lloyd, Hunter-Wilson and Martin West. New material from the 1950s to contemporary times includes the archives of Jürgen Schadeberg and Ernest Cole. Other seminal collections complement the early historic images: The Cordoned Heart, an investigation into poverty and development; Beyond the Barricades, an anthology documenting resistance to apartheid; the Staffrider exhibitions; as well as photographers such as Guy Tillim, Greg Marinovich, Cedric Nunn, George Hallett, Paul Grendon, Chris Ledochowski, Graeme Williams, and others. We are also engaged in projects that aim to keep the archive alive and in conversation with the South African heritage and memory: Underexposed is a collection of highly significant but off-the-radar photographers; The Other Camera is an anthology of vernacular photography; while the Ernest Cole Award supports contemporary South African photography.
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South Africa
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Ditch-workers in Johannesburg, pounding rhythmically and singing, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Birth of a baby, Sophiatown, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Alexandra, a township north of Johannesburg, was surrounded by open country and farms where cows were often entertained by lonely brass band players rehearsing a tune. Alexandra township, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Makeshift houses in Orlando squatter camp, outside Johannesburg, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Friday nights with Vy Nkosi, Sophiatown, 1951. Popular trombonist Vy Nkosi "rocked tremors into the bowels of the earth" from the 1940s to the 1950s.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Nelson Mandela, at the annual African National Congress (ANC) conference in Bloemfontein, where the Defiance Campaign was conceived and planned, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1951
Makeshift houses in Orlando squatter camp, outside Johannesburg, 1951.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1952
There were dance halls throughout South Africa, from Orlando to Mamelodi, and to Sophiatown. The stages were often improvised and there was real sound, without microphones and amplifiers. Sophiatown, 1952.
UCT: University of Cape Town · 1 October 1952
Visit to a farm, Muldersdrift, 1952.