The Book of Life

Schadeberg, Jürgen

United Nations Devleopment Programme

Jurgen has edited and published several photographic books including "The Finest Photos from the Old Drum", "The Fifties People of South Africa", "Mandela & The Rise of the ANC", "Voices from Robben Island", "Sof'town Blues", and three new books in 2002 "The Black & White Fifties", "The San of the Kalahari" & "Soweto Today". "Witness - 52 years of pointing lenses at Life" was published in 2004 and in 2006 "Voices from the Land" . In 2007 he published "Jazz, Swing & Blues - 56 years of SA Jazz" and "Tales from Jozi - new colour work of Johannesburg today. Together with his producer wife Claudia Jurgen established The Schadeberg Movie Company to produce a series of some 15 documentaries about South African social, cultural and political history. Jurgen Schadeberg, sometimes known as "The Father of South African Photography", is a principle figure in South African and World Photography. His major body of work, which spans 60 years and incorporates a collection of some 100,000 negatives, captures a wealth of timeless and iconic images.

Voices From Robben Island

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Ravan

Many of the photographs are as familiar as they are iconic: Nelson Mandela gazing through the bars of his prison cell on Robben Island; a young Miriam Makeba smiling and dancing; Hugh Masekela as a schoolboy receiving the gift of a trumpet from Louis Armstrong;  the Sophiatown removals; the funeral of the Sharpeville massacre victims …Photographer Jürgen Schadeberg was the man behind the camera, recording history as it unfolded in apartheid South Africa. His empathy for the displaced, the persecuted and the marginalised was already deeply rooted by the time he came to South Africa from Germany in 1950 and began taking pictures for the fledgling Drum magazine.Schadeberg’s first-hand experiences as a child in Berlin during the Second World War are vividly told. As the only child of an actress, who left her son largely to his own devices, Schadeberg became skilled at living by his wits, and developed a resourcefulness that stood him in good stead throughout his life. With some luck and a great deal of perseverance, he was able to pursue his interest in photography in Hamburg, undergoing training as an unpaid ‘photographic volunteer’ at a press agency, then graduating to taking photos at football matches.After two years, Schadeberg made the decision to travel to South Africa. He arrived in Johannesburg on a cold winter’s morning. He had a piece of paper with his mother’s address on it, his worldly possessions in a small, cheap suitcase on the station platform beside him, and his Leica camera, as always, around his neck.

The Way I See It: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Pan/Macmillan

The San has a most unusual history, which is told in the book through unique pictures, some shamanic in the movement they capture. In July 1959 Jurgen Schadeberg joined an expedition led by Professor Phillip Tobias, then chairman of the Kalahari Research Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand, to study the San. The result is this collection of stunning black and white photographs, provided with detailed captions, as well as insightful introductory and concluding chapters. The San inhabited the whole of southern Africa before the spear and the gun drove them further into the desert region of the Kalahari. They are among the last of the hunting and gathering societies in an agricultural and industrialized world.

The San of the Kalahari

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Protea Boekhuis

When a young, naively confident Jurgen Schadeberg first arrived at The Star news offices in Johannesburg with a Leica strung over his shoulder, he was informed by the paper's chief photographer that he would not last long in the industry with such a tiny camera. Never before was the voice of professional prophecy proven so wrong. In a career spanning over half a century, Schadeberg has come to represent much more than the prototype of the visual storyteller. He epitomizes the very best in photojournalism – a photographer with an uncanny sense of timing – momentarily and historically. He possesses an instinctive, idiosyncratic way of seeing, coupled with a rigorous sense of organization. These attributes are combined with an astute insight into the human condition. He occupies nothing less than legendary status among contemporary photojournalists. This timely publication presents an overview of Schadeberg's impressive collection. Included are photographs in a distinct South African context, juxtaposed with timeless images of an international nature. The seminal works are represented, together with photographs published never before.

Witness: 52 Years of Pointing Lenses at Life

During apartheid, Jurgen Schadeberg worked for the leading “black” publications of the time. This way he had access to the likes of a young activists, like the lawyer, named Nelson Mandela. Iconic pictures of many future South African leaders followed. Judge Albie Sachs, an ANC operative who lost an arm in an attack by the security police, says of this collection: “Jurgen Schadeberg wrenches moments and people right out of time, place and mood, so that we can engage with them here and now, as we are, at the instant of looking. We gasp and feel a frisson of delight at each picture. Was it really like that? Look at the faces as they were then, the hairstyles, the clothes people wore, the way they looked at each other. What is still the same, what has changed? There is the honesty of values, the dignified and respectful treatment of the subject matter and especially the people who might be involved. In this respect Jurgen’s photographs are extraordinarily sensitive.”

Black and White Fifties: Jurgen Schadeberg's South Africa

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