Jürgen Schadeberg

Jürgen Schadeberg (born 1931) is a South African photographer and artist.

Overview

Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and in 1951[1] found employment on Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist.[2][3]

Schadeberg became the senior figure of the group[4] and a teacher and mentor to some of the most creative South African photographers of his time, like Bob Gosani, Ernest Cole and later Peter Magubane.[5] As one of the few white photographers who photographed daily life among the black community, he became knowledgeable about black life and culture. As a result, he captured on film the beginnings of the freedom movement, the effects of apartheid and the vibrancy of township life.[6]

Schadeberg photographed many historic and pivotal events in the 1950s among them the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the 1956 Treason Trial, the Sophiatown removals of 1955, the Sophiatown jazz and social scene,[7] the Sharpeville funeral of 1960 and pictures of Robben Island inmates.[8] Some of the famous people he photographed include Nelson Mandela,[9] Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Trevor Huddleston, and Govan Mbeki. He also documented '50s jazz legends such as Dolly Rathebe, Kippie Moeketsi, Thandi Klaasen, and Miriam Makeba.

Drum wanted the singer Dolly Rathebe to be the cover girl for one of their issues. Schadeberg took her to a Johannesburg mine dump and photographed her in a bikini. The two were arrested for contravening the Immorality Act which forbade interracial relationships.[10]

In 1959, Schadeberg left Drum to become a freelancer. He was part of an expedition led by Professor Phillip V. Tobias from the University of the Witwatersrand to study the San (Bushmen). These images were published in The Kalahari Bushmen Dance in 1982.[11]

Schadeberg was forced to leave South Africa in 1964 and went to London, where he was picture editor of Camera Owner magazine (forerunner of Creative Camera)[12] into which he incorporated a stronger sense of design and increased its pictorial content, and from April to July 1965 he was its editor.[13][14] He also taught and curated photographic exhibitions in England, notably for the Whitechapel Art Gallery.[5] He then moved to Spain where he concentrated on a career as an artist. In 1972, he returned to Africa where he accepted a position as photographer for Christian Aid in Botswana and Tanzania. In 1973 he travelled from Senegal and Mali to Kenya and Zaire to take photographs.[11]

In 1984, Schadeberg returned to South Africa. He continues to work as a photojournalist, as well as making documentaries about the black community.

Books
  • The Fifties People of South Africa : the lives of some ninety-five people who were influential in South Africa during the fifties, a period which saw the first stirrings of the coming revolution / with photos by Bob Gosani ... [et al.], Bailey's African Photo Archives, 1987, ISBN 0-620-10529-1
  • The Finest photos from the old Drum, Bailey's African Photo Archives, 1987; Penguin Books [distributor], ISBN 062010581X
  • The Kalahari Bushmen Dance, Jürgen Schadeberg, 1982, ISBN 0-7045-0472-3
  • Nelson Mandela and the Rise of the ANC / compiled and edited by Jürgen Schadeberg ; photographs by Ian Berry ... [et al.] ; text by Benson Dyantyi ...[et al.], Jonathan Ball, 1990, ISBN 0-947464-18-2
  • Sof'town Blues:[lower-alpha 1] images from the black '50s, J. Schadeberg, 1994, ISBN 0-9583980-1-1
  • Voices from Robben Island, Ravan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-86975-454-8
  • The Black and White Fifties : Jürgen Schadeberg's South Africa, Protea, 2001, ISBN 1-919825-71-1
  • Soweto today, Protea Book House, 2002, ISBN 1-919825-72-X
  • Who Killed Mr. Drum? / Sylvester Stein / photography by Jürgen Schadeberg, Corvo Books, 2003, ISBN 0-9543255-1-6
  • The Book of Life, UN Development Programme, 2004, ISBN 0-620-33285-9
  • Witness: 52 Years of Pointing Lenses at Life, Protea Book House, 2004, ISBN 1-86919-067-X
  • Voices from the Land, Protea Book House, 2005, ISBN 1-86919-105-6
  • Tales from Jozi, Protea Book House, 2007, ISBN 978-1-86919-175-7
  • Jürgen Schadeberg, Hatje Cantz Verlag, edited by Ralf-P. Seippel, 2008, German/English/French, ISBN 978-3-7757-2150-9

Film and video
  • Ernest Cole – Video, 52 mins. The life and work of a courageous & pioneering black photographer
  • Voices from Robben Island – 16 mm, 90 mins. The history of the infamous island prison, a BBC co-production
  • War & Peace – Video, 60 mins. The history of the ANC from 1900–1994
  • Have you seen Drum recently? – 35 mm, 77 mins. The vibrant and turbulent fifti. ith original music and photographs.
  • The seven ages of music – Video, 56 mins. A musical trip through history, from San singing to Hugh Masekela
  • Dolly & the Inkspots – Video, 26 mins. The life and memories of this legendary jazz singing combination
  • Drumbeats – 16 mm, 56 mins
  • Ballroom Fever – Video, 26 mins
  • Jo'burg Cocktail – Video, 56 mins
  • Halala Bomane! = Hail the Women! – Video, 56 mins

Notes
  1. Sof'town is an abbreviation for Sophiatown

References
  1. Newbury, Darren. "Johannesburg Lunch-Hour 1951–1963: The emergence and development of the humanist photographic essay in Drum magazine." In Journalism Studies 8.4 (2007): 584-594.
  2. The Finest photos from the old Drum, Bailey's African Photo Archives, 1987; Penguin Books [distributor], ISBN 062010581X
  3. Enwezor, O. (January 01, 2013). 'A critical presence: Drum magazine in context'. In Modern Art in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: an Introduction to Global Modernisms, 58-62.
  4. Henning, Michelle (2015), Wells, Liz (ed.), Photography : a critical introduction (Fifth ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-1-315-72737-0
  5. "Jürgen Schadeberg". Link Portfolio. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  6. Sampson, Anthony (2005), Drum : the making of a magazine (2005 ed.), Jonathan Ball Publishers, ISBN 978-1-86842-211-1
  7. Sof'town Blues: images from the black '50s, J. Schadeberg, 1994, ISBN 0-9583980-1-1
  8. Jürgen Schadeberg, Voices from Robben Island, Ravan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-86975-454-8
  9. Nelson Mandela and the Rise of the ANC / compiled and edited by Jürgen Schadeberg ; photographs by Ian Berry ... [et al.] ; text by Benson Dyantyi ...[et al.], Jonathan Ball, 1990, ISBN 0-947464-18-2
  10. "Dolly Rathebe". S A History. Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  11. "Jürgen Schadeberg". SA History. Archived from the original on 8 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  12. Brittain, David (1999). Creative camera : thirty years of writing. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5804-2.
  13. David Allan Mellor, "A Contextual Chronology", p.150. In David Allan Mellor, ed., No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–87: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection (London: Hayward, 2007; ISBN 978-1-85332-265-5).
  14. Val Williams, 'Crowned with Thorns: Creative Camera 1965-1978'. In Creative Camera No.321, April–May 1993
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