Alf Khumalo
Encyclopedia
Alfred Kumalo (better known as Alf Kumalo) is a South Africa
n photographer.
near Johannesburg
. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could. He did a lot of work for the Bantu World.
In 1956, he found a permanent position at the Golden City Post.
In 1963, while working for Drum magazine, he was selected together with Harry Mashabela to go and shoot a story about African students in the Iron Curtain
countries. The two made the front cover of the next edition of the magazine, Drum men go to Europe.
While in London
, he interviewed Cassius Clay and then found out that he had won first place in a photographic competition. The prize was an Austin Cambridge
motor car.
Kumalo had been encouraged to enter by David Hazelhurst, the editor of Drum.
Kumalo had used his African names Mangaliso Dukuza because he wanted the judging to be impartial and not influenced by his reputation. A picture of him and his award was published by the Star
on its front page. A lot of black people talked about it for days afterwards, because in those days they would only get on to the front pages of white newspapers if they were thieves.
Despite the prospect of being arrested and assaulted, Khumalo kept on taking pictures, sometimes at personal cost. David Hazelhurst recalled: One day in 1963, when I was editor of Drum
magazine, Alf Khumalo walked into my office carrying a picture. It showed a burly policeman delivering a vicious kick between the legs of reporter Harry Mashabela from behind. Such was the power of the kick you could see the shape of his boot exploding through the front of Mashabela’ trousers.
It was the year of the jackboot of John Vorster, habeas corpus
had disappeared, the 90-day-detention without trial Act had given policemen a license to kill and assault behind closed doors with impunity.
The police hated journalists – and photographers in particular, for their pictures portrayed the truth about an evil system, and Kumalo, despite warnings, risked a severe beating to take the Mashabela picture. He had tried to sell it to several papers with no success.
However, Hazelhurst splashed the picture across two pages of Drum.
Over the years he has photographed and documented many of the historic moments in recent South African history. These include the Treason Trial
, the Rivonia Trial
, the emergence of Black Consciousness
, the Student Uprising of 1976 and the Codesa
talks. This was despite numerous periods of detention, arrests and official harassment
.
His work has appeared in international newspapers like The Observer
, New York Times
, New York Post
, and the Sunday Independent
. Locally, he also worked for Drum
magazine and the long defunct Rand Daily Mail.
In order to assist the upcoming generation of South African photographers, Khumalo opened a photographic school in Diepkloof
Soweto
. The school offers nine month courses designed to train photographers from disadvantaged backgrounds.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n photographer.
Overview
Alf Kumalo was born in AlexandraAlexandra, Gauteng
Alexandra or Alex for short, nicknamed Gomora is a township located in Gauteng province, South Africa. It is part of Johannesburg, close to the wealthy suburb of Sandton and is bounded by Wynberg on the west, Marlboro and Kelvin on the north, Kew, Lombardy West and Lombardy East on the south...
near Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could. He did a lot of work for the Bantu World.
In 1956, he found a permanent position at the Golden City Post.
In 1963, while working for Drum magazine, he was selected together with Harry Mashabela to go and shoot a story about African students in the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
countries. The two made the front cover of the next edition of the magazine, Drum men go to Europe.
While in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he interviewed Cassius Clay and then found out that he had won first place in a photographic competition. The prize was an Austin Cambridge
Austin Cambridge
The Austin Cambridge is a motor car range sold by the Austin Motor Company in several generations from September 1954 through to 1969 as cars and 1971 as light commercials. It replaced the A40 Somerset but was entirely new with modern unibody construction...
motor car.
Kumalo had been encouraged to enter by David Hazelhurst, the editor of Drum.
Kumalo had used his African names Mangaliso Dukuza because he wanted the judging to be impartial and not influenced by his reputation. A picture of him and his award was published by the Star
The Star (South Africa)
The Star is a daily newspaper based in Gauteng, South Africa. It has a readership of 840 000 and is owned by Independent News & Media. It gained worldwide attention in 2006 when it published survey results according to which about twenty percent of South African men have raped a woman in...
on its front page. A lot of black people talked about it for days afterwards, because in those days they would only get on to the front pages of white newspapers if they were thieves.
Despite the prospect of being arrested and assaulted, Khumalo kept on taking pictures, sometimes at personal cost. David Hazelhurst recalled: One day in 1963, when I was editor of Drum
Drum (Magazine)
Drum is a South African family magazine mainly aimed at Black readers and contains market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines: Huisgenoot and YOU .In 2005 it was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa"—but it is...
magazine, Alf Khumalo walked into my office carrying a picture. It showed a burly policeman delivering a vicious kick between the legs of reporter Harry Mashabela from behind. Such was the power of the kick you could see the shape of his boot exploding through the front of Mashabela’ trousers.
It was the year of the jackboot of John Vorster, habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
had disappeared, the 90-day-detention without trial Act had given policemen a license to kill and assault behind closed doors with impunity.
The police hated journalists – and photographers in particular, for their pictures portrayed the truth about an evil system, and Kumalo, despite warnings, risked a severe beating to take the Mashabela picture. He had tried to sell it to several papers with no success.
However, Hazelhurst splashed the picture across two pages of Drum.
Over the years he has photographed and documented many of the historic moments in recent South African history. These include the Treason Trial
Treason Trial
The Treason Trial was a trial in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956....
, the Rivonia Trial
Rivonia Trial
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in South Africa between 1963 and 1964, in which ten leaders of the African National Congress were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid system.-Origins:...
, the emergence of Black Consciousness
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in...
, the Student Uprising of 1976 and the Codesa
Convention for a Democratic South Africa
The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of negotiations between 1990 and 1993 and through unilateral steps by the de Klerk government. These negotiations took place between the governing National Party, the African National Congress, and a wide variety of other political...
talks. This was despite numerous periods of detention, arrests and official harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...
.
His work has appeared in international newspapers like The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, and the Sunday Independent
Sunday Independent
The Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
. Locally, he also worked for Drum
Drum (Magazine)
Drum is a South African family magazine mainly aimed at Black readers and contains market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines: Huisgenoot and YOU .In 2005 it was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa"—but it is...
magazine and the long defunct Rand Daily Mail.
In order to assist the upcoming generation of South African photographers, Khumalo opened a photographic school in Diepkloof
Diepmeadow, Gauteng
Diepmeadow is a township that is part of the greater Soweto in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. It consists of two townships of Diepkloof and Meadowlands. Meadowlands was built to accommodate the residents of Sophiatownyomi ias greatved in 1957. Diepkloof was established in 1959 to accommodate...
Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
. The school offers nine month courses designed to train photographers from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Books
- Mandela : echoes of an era / by Alf Kumalo ; text by Es'kia Mphahlele, Penguin Books, 1990, ISBN 0-14-014316-5
- Alf Kumalo: South African Photographer, Itala Vivan & Alf Kumalo, Leonardo arte, ISBN 8-8-7813384-1
Solo exhibitions
- 2004 - 59th Session of the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
General Assembly in New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
- a collection of his life’s work - the exhibition was much acclaimed
Selected group exhibitions
- 2001 - Soweto – A South African Myth - Photographs from the 1950s (by Alf Khumalo, Ernest ColeErnest Cole-Overview:Ernest Cole was a black South African born in Eersterust in Pretoria, in 1940.He left school when the Bantu Education Act was put in place, and instead completed his matric via correspondance...
and Jürgen SchadebergJürgen Schadeberg-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
). The core of the exhibition is the student uprising of 1976. This includes some of Peter MagubanePeter Magubane-Early life:He was born in Vrededorp, now Pageview, a suburb in Johannesburg and grew up in Sophiatown. He started taking some photographs using a Kodak Brownie box camera as a schoolboy....
's work.
- 2002 - Shooting Resistance: South African Photography 1976 - 1994 - The exhibition documented the period of upheavals that began with the student-led Soweto uprising of 1976 and culminated in the collapse of the apartheid regime and the introduction of democratic elections in 1994. Included were photographs by Alf Khumalo, Jürgen SchadebergJürgen Schadeberg-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
and Peter MagubanePeter Magubane-Early life:He was born in Vrededorp, now Pageview, a suburb in Johannesburg and grew up in Sophiatown. He started taking some photographs using a Kodak Brownie box camera as a schoolboy....
.
- 2006 - Madiba: Public and Private - Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg. Works by photographers Alf Kumalo and Jürgen SchadebergJürgen Schadeberg-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
. . Schadeberg's photos are of the public images of MandelaNelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
from the 1950s, during the Defiance CampaignDefiance CampaignThe Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in December 1951....
and before Mandela's imprisonment, while Kumalo's are of Mandela's private life, particularly of his family. Many of Kumalo's pictures were taken of Mandela's growing family, to send to Mandela in jail.
Awards
- 2004 – South African Order of Ikhamanga in Silver awarded for his excellent contribution to documentary photography and journalism in South Africa.
- 2005 - South African National Editors Forum Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity for displaying courageous journalism throughout his professional career.