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Dr. Peter Magubane

2020 Honoree / Lifetime Achievement Award

“A Struggle without documentation is no Struggle”

Dr Peter Magubane was born in 1932 in Vrededorp and grew up in Sophiatown a mixed race suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa.

From the township streets to the hallways of power Dr Magubane has spent more than 60 years photographing his peoples’ struggle against injustice and other social issues. He was first published in Drum Magazine in 1954. This took him and his camera to the heart of the Anti-Apartheid defiance campaigns and treason trials. After freelancing in London in the early 1960’s, he returned to South Africa and worked for the Rand Daily Mail from 1967 until 1980. From 1967 – 1976 Dr Magubane was repeatedly arrested, detained, interrogated, jailed or placed under house arrest. He was banned for five years and could not work at the Rand Daily Mail. In 1969 he was arrested and served 586 days in solitary confinement, this is the longest period any one person has been placed in solitary confinement in South Africa.

In 1976 he was hospitalized after his nose was broken by the police when he refused to expose his film to light while documenting police brutality in Alexandra township, Johannesburg. His home was also burnt down. In 1985 he was shot 17 times with buckshot and rubber bullets at a student activist’s funeral in Natalspruit. His coverage of the 1976, Soweto uprising and the aftermath that spread throughout South Africa brought world-wide acclaim and led to a number of international photographic and journalistic awards, including the American National Professional Photographers Association Humanistic Award in 1986, which also recognized one of the several incidents where he put his camera aside and assisted people from being killed. His 2016 book commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1976 student uprising is regarded as one of the most important works of contemporary Africana to appear in the last two decades.

From 1978 to 1980 Dr. Magubane worked as a correspondent for Time Magazine. Dr Magubane has photographed for several United Nations agencies including the High Commission for Refugees and UNICEF. His photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Life Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek, National Geographic, Paris Match and the Washington post among others. Upon the release of Mandela, Dr Magubane became the “inside” photographer to Mandela up until Mandela was elected president in 1994. In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Dr Magubane has focused his lens on South Africa’s people and culture. He has published a number of books on reflecting the beauty of South African cultural practices these include: “African Renaissance” , “Vanishing Cultures of South Africa” , “AmaNdebele” among others.

His infectious sense of humour and larger than life laugh belies the hardship he has endured under the oppressive apartheid regime.

His honors include:

The 1983 Coretta Scott King Award. The Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished service in Journalism from the University of Missouri (1992) for his lifelong coverage of Apartheid. The Robert Capa Gold Medal (1986) The lifetime achievement award from the Mother Jones Foundation (1997) Martin Luther King Luthuli award. Fellowship by the Tom Hopkins School of Journalism and Cultural Studies. Whales, U. K. In 2009 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in London. The Cornell Capa Award 2010 from the ICP. The Nat Nakasa award for Media Integraty (2015) The Order of Meritorious service from President Mandela silver class, among others. Dr. Magubane has 8 Honorary Doctorates including, a doctorate from Columbia Collage in Chicago. He has published over 20 books with more to come. These Include, “Magubanes South Africa” , “Black as I am”, “Black child” , “Soweto Speaks”, “Fruit of Fear” and “Mandela- Man of the People”.

He has had numerous exhibitions throughout South Africa and all over the world most notably June 16th, 1976 at the Apartheid Museum in South Africa (2005) and Photo Za Gallery, Johannesburg (2017), Child Labour at the University of Johannesburg (2012) Mandela-Man of the People at the United Nations in New York (2010) and at The European Centre for Solidarity in Gdansk, Poland opened by former President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Walesa and Ambassador Zindzi Mandela (2016). His retrospective consisting of a 140 pictures opened at the ABSA gallery in Johannesburg (2014) and travelled throughout South Africa in 2015. In 2018 to coincide with President Mandela Centenary, Dr Magubane selected a hundred of his best Mandela Pictures for an Exhibition in Cape Town at the Gateway to Robben Island.

On awarding Dr Magubane the Order of Meritorious Service in 1999, Presidant Mandela said ‘For his Bravery and courage during the dark days of Apartheid, Peter Became a beacon of hope not only to thousands of journalists all over the world but also to millions of people across our country. His commitment to photojournalism helped pave the way to transformation in South Africa, and such efforts are needless to say, worthy of international recognition. ‘

Dr Magubane has mentored numerous photographers over the years. At 88 years of age he continues to teach and inspire people. In his spare time he loves photographing the sun setting over the roof tops of Soweto.

Biography compiled by David Meyer-Gollan

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