I think Sabelo Mlangeni is probably the best young(ish) photographer in South Africa. If you don’t know his work go and look at his projects, Country Girls, At Home/Ghost Towns (links included at the end of this post) and even his first project, Invisible Women, made when he was still studying at the Market Photo Workshop. It is very hard to think of anyone else who has so consistently produced nuanced, thoughtful images that actually expand our understanding of modern day South Africa. This image, Shuanny Hifive, No 20 Freeda Road, is one that underlines this class.
Read MoreEvent oriented documentary photography and photography of the land and cityscapes represent two major genres of photography in South Africa, with the latter growing in significance since South Africa achieved democracy in 1994. One of the early torchbearers of landscape and cityscape photography has been David Goldblatt, and in his seminal book, ‘The Structure of Things Then’, he clearly illustrates the link between society, history and the landscape as he recorded events of great trauma and marginalization (Goldblatt, 1998). These themes have since proven popular within South African photography.
In this paper, after placing some notable South African photographers within the context of international landscape photography, I will analyse images created by these photographers to establish the techniques they use to explore these themes, and to assess the potential values of photography of trauma and the landscape.
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