Peter Magubane
The mistreatment of black mineworkers was a compelling subject for many photographers in South Africa. New recruits were employed for only 18 months at a time, and lived in overcrowded hostels. This photograph, in which workers are stripped and humiliated, illustrates the extent to which black labour was exploited in service of white South Africa’s economic prosperity. Formally and thematically similar to a photograph by Ernest Cole in House of Bondage, the two photographers reportedly came to blows over their identical subjects.
b.1932, Johannesburg; d.2024, Johannesburg
Peter Magubane is recognised for his fearlessness in documenting apartheid’s subjugation of black South Africans. He was arrested on numerous occasions and sentenced to nearly 600 days in solitary confinement. In Magubane’s words: “I did not want to leave the country to find another life. I was going to stay and fight with my camera as my gun. I did not want to kill anyone, though. I wanted to kill apartheid.”