23 November 2024

Peter Magubane who fought apartheid with his camera dies at 91

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 A black South African photographer, Peter Magubane, whose images documenting the cruelties and violence of apartheid drew global acclaim but punishment at home, including beatings, imprisonment and 586 consecutive days of solitary confinement, died on Monday.

He was 91. His death was confirmed by family members speaking to South African television news broadcasts. No other details were provided.

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Such were the challenges and perils facing Black photographers in South Africa’s apartheid-era segregated townships, Mr. Magubane liked to say, that he took to hiding his camera in hollowed-out bread loaves, empty milk cartons or even the Bible, enabling him to shoot pictures clandestinely.

 “I did not want to leave the country to find another life,” he told The Guardian in 2015.

 “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.”

 New York Times

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