Uncovered archive: the studio photography of Richard Ndimande from apartheid South Africa
Photography was used a weapon on both sides of the struggle during apartheid. The South African authorities wielded it as a way to monitor and control individuals, and to instrumentalise racial segregation. Black people were forced to carry a passbook, which held their headshot and strict regulations about where they were permitted to exist. Conversely for the suppressed majority, photography could be a weapon for rebellion. Behind the forced stratification of the public space lurked the empowering environment of the private realm.
“Photographic studios in apartheid South Africa were one of the few outlets where people could express themselves”
Within this frame, the studio of Z.J.S. Ndimande and Sons embraced its own space to claim ownership of identity and creative freedom for black citizens. And now it’s little seen archive is up for auction at Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary African Art sale this week.
Z.J.S Ndimande opened his studio in Greytown (in present day KwaZulu-Natal province) in the 1940s with his son Richard Ndimande taking over in 1968. By that time, the Group Areas Act took affect, forcibly displacing groups from urban areas on the basis of race. The studio was relocated to Enhlalakahle, a rural location far from their established clientele and business prospects. It was under such grave circumstances that this collection of black and white photographs took shape. They depict men, women and children posing with pride in the safety of Ndimande’s studio.
The photographs reveal initiative on both the parts of the individuals being photographed and the photographer. The few props that are seen throughout - the basket of flowers, the simple metal arch way, the stool, contemporary dress and traditional Zulu clothing - are all relived in various ways as the subjects adorns them in their performance for the camera. The resulting images shatter perceived stereotypes of South African people, as seen through a western lens, that have perpetuated the rhetoric of ‘exoticism’ and ‘barbarism’.
This visceral freedom of expression is strongly felt in one image of a woman wearing only her underwear. She stands against a simple black curtain backdrop, confronting the camera. The liberation to show oneself fully, without concealment or shame, marks a poignant act of reclamation in a world where the colour of one’s skin was disallowed.
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Conversely in other images, the subjects have their backs to the camera. One in particular of a mother and child, captures the delicacy of the moment and sentiment of the relationship, revealing the agency that was born out of Ndimande’s studio.
Today photographers such as Richard Ndimande are finally being celebrated for their talent, as well as their resilience in the face of severe hardships. So it’s rare that this archive, including over 1,000 photographs and four albums, has come to light.
Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary African Art specialist, Helene Love-Allotey, says: “Photographic studios in apartheid South Africa were one of the few outlets where people could express themselves. This archive of images offers a glimpse at the fun and creative flair that remained within ordinary life, even under such difficult circumstances.”
Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary African Art sale is on Wednesday 18 March 2020 at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London