Collected by Julie Frederikse for the research of her book “ The Unbreakable Thread”, this photograph collection forms a comprehensive visual document of the struggle history of South Africa. These photo’s were taken by a number of well-known photographers while part of the photo agency Afrapix in the 1980s. Afrapix photographers Paul Weinberg, Steve Hilton-Barber, Guy Tillim, Anna Zieminski , Gille de Vlieg, Jimi Matthews, Gideon Mendel, Cedric Nunn, Gisele Wulfsohn, Eric Muller, Wendy Schwegmann, Omar Badsha, Dave Hartman, Rafs Mayet, Roger Meintjies, Justin Sholk, and others, have become known for capturing the changing face of South African politics through the turbulent 1980s to democracy.

Afrapix, founded in 1982 as a collective photo agency and library, brought together a number of photographers who became known for using the camera as a weapon against apartheid. Before 1980, most of these photographers worked independently from each other. With the aim of stimulating documentary photography, Afrapix’s collective approach became one of sharing skills and ideas. Photography generated during this period also became known as ‘struggle photography’. Afrapix was dissolved in 1991 as South Africa’s international isolation ended.

Some of the most prolific Afrapix photographers represented in this collection are:-

Gille de Vlieg:- Activist and photographer Gille de Vlieg was born in England. A trained nurse, she worked in Pietermaritzburg and London before moving to Johannesburg where she became a member of Black Sash in 1982. In 1984, after documenting various “black spots” in the rural Transvaal, she met Afrapix founder member Paul Weinberg who encouraged her to join the collective photo agency and library founded two years earlier. An introduction into township life further inspired her to depict the “alternative view of South Africa”. In the late 1980s she participated in the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, Amsterdam, and other group exhibitions. She currently lives in KwaZulu-Natal.

Steve Hilton-Barber:- Born in 1962, he studied journalism at Rhodes University in Grahamstown before he joined Afrapix from 1986-1990. During this time he also worked as a stringer for Reuters in the Eastern Cape. After leaving Afrapix he started Southlight Photographic agency with Paul Weinberg in 1990. In the same year he won awards for his controversial “Initiation” series. He subsequently worked for Saturday Star and became Chief Photographer at the Mail and Guardian. Thereafter, he collaborated in numerous photographic exhibitions, traveled the USA, accumulated a number of awards and became the official photographer for both ”Big Brother” and Pop Idols before he died of a heart attack in 2002.

Rafiq (Rafs) Mayet:- Born in Durban, Mayet was taught the basics of photography by Omar Badsha in 1983. He began his photographic career at the Daily Dispatch in East London and moved on to the New African in Durban, before he became an Afrapix photographer. He worked for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) during the first democratic elections in 1994. He has been involved in numerous exhibitions, and was one of twelve South African photographers to submit essays for a show commissioned by the Netherlands Architectural Institute, entitled “Blank – Architecture and Apartheid”, in 1998. He continues to work on a variety of projects, such as the Warwick Avenue Triangle and an on-going documentation of contemporary jazz musicians. He is also interested in learning more about archival printing processes.

Eric Miller:- Bred in Johannesburg, this onetime psychology student was struck by the power of the media while working in the corporate sector. It was the media’s misuse of power by the apartheid state which led him to leave the corporate world in the mid 1980s and to join Afrapix to document the struggle during the State of Emergency. He spent three years working for Reuters after 1988; but the birth of his son prompted him to move from hard news to feature work. His work on the home front reflects transformation of South African society, with a focus on housing delivery, health, education, and labour, while his work elsewhere in Africa covers the Rwandan genocide, famine in Sudan, and post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia. He has published three books and exhibited in South Africa and abroad.

Cedric Nunn:- Born in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), in 1957, his photographic career started with documenting what was being ignored by the mainstream media: the realities of apartheid. No wonder then that he joined Afrapix, and also set up an Afrapix agency in Durban. Since then, a largely freelance photographer, he became known for using the camera to “wrestle with his own identity”. He was involved in producing voter education material for various NGO’s for 1994 elections, and also covered the elections for IEC as part of a team of photographers. From 1998- 2000 he was director of the Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg. He has participated in numerous cultural exchanges, organized and curated major photographic exhibitions, and his major personal project “Blood relatives” was exhibited at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg in 2005. He has returned to KZN where he now lives in Mangete.

Justin Sholk:- Born in South Africa and currently residing in Bulgaria, he has worked as a freelance photographer with various newspaper and magazines. He has also exhibited in South Africa and abroad.

Guy Tillim;- Born in Johannesburg in 1962, he became a full-time photographer even though he completed a degree in commerce at the University of Cape Town. He worked for Afrapix from 1986-1990. During this time he also worked for Reuters in South Africa and for Agence France Presse in the run-up to first democratic elections in 1994. After 1990 he started to expand his work into Africa where he covered the phenomenon of child soldiers. He also worked on assignment for various international publications, exhibited extensively and won many awards. Since 1998 he has increasingly concentrated on his own work. He is currently living in Cape Town.

Paul Weinberg:- Born in Pietermaritzburg, KZN in 1956, he gave up his law studies to concentrate on photography. A founder member of both Afrapix in 1982 and Southlight Photographic in 1990, he found himself confronted with difficult situations as a photographer during the height of the political struggles in the 1980s and was relieved when he again could return to photographing people, their cultures and their way of life. From 1990 onwards he increasingly moved away from news photography to concentrate on feature. With his passion in photography mainly dealing with indigenous people and land issues, he has also been involved in many exhibitions and projects with regards to human rights issues, environment and HIV/Aids. He has also worked for many non-governmental organisations; has been published widely, curated numerous exhibitions, and won many awards. He has furthermore been involved with film-making and teaching. He continues to work as a photojournalist, documentary photographer and film-maker.

Gisele Wulfsohn:- A freelance photographer with a special interest in gender, education and health issues, in particular HIV/AIDS, she moved from Style magazine to join Afrapix in the mid-1980s. Also one of the photographers to work for the IEC to document the first democratic elections in 1994, her work since the late 1980s focuses increasingly on HIV/AIDS as she documents the HIV pandemic not as catastrophe, but rather as an experience of choosing to live positively. She has been a photographer for numerous publications, and also participated in the exhibition “Malibongwe: Let Us Praise The Women” which marked the 50th anniversary of women’s march to Union Buildings in Pretoria. Gisele Wulfsohn died on 27 December 2011 after a long illness.

A number of photographs in this collection can also be credited to the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) for Southern Africa. IDAF was an anti-apartheid organisation, born out of Christian Action (CA) under John Collins in the 1950s, that smuggled large amounts of money into South Africa for the defense of thousands of political activists, including the Treason Trialists, and to provide aid for their families while they were in prison. IDAF received international status in 1965, and on 18 March 1966 it was banned by Minister of Justice, John Vorster as an ‘unlawful organisation’ under the Suppression of Communism Act. IDAF, however, continued to send aids secretively. Over a period of 25 yrs 100 million pounds had been smuggled into SA. IDAF also ran an extensive research and publication operation. Collins died in 1982 after which Horst Kleinschmidt became director of IDAF until it closed in 1991.

The Original SAHA Photograph collection, to a large extent, tells the story of South Africa's political past by the photographers on the front lines, and covers the following topics:- Political parties and organisations: rallies, meetings, protests: ANC; NP, DP, PFP, AZAPO, COSAS, SACP, Pan African Movement (PAM), Black Peoples Convention (BPC), PAC, Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), UDF, Organisations (pressure groups, support committees): Black Sash, Detainees’ Parents’ Support Committee, Cape Youth Congress, DESCOM, FEDSAW, IDASA, ECC; Anti-Apartheid Movement: Trevor Huddleston; “Bantustans”; defiance campaign, resistance: elections, community councils, health system, imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, pass-burning, demonstrations and protests 1940-1960s, religious leaders, Forced Removals and Relocations: Batlokwa people, Sophiatown, District Six; Trials & Detentions: Treason Trial, Rivonia Trial, Delmas Trial; release of detainees and prisoners in the late 1980s-1990s; education including shool boycotts and unrest, universities and resistance; elections; violence (unrest): townships in the 1980s, Soweto, Sharpeville, funerals: Steve Biko, David Webster, Neil Aggett and other activists; labour: farm workers and child labour, mine workers, municipal workers, sheep shearers and women workers; Trade Unions: Cosatu, Fosatu and others, May Day, strikes, protests; living conditions in urban areas: Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal; media: cartoons, placards, posters; political graffiti; SADF and SAP in the 1980s; treatment of press/media, military festivals, parades and exercises, militarization of South African society, cross-border raids; non-racialism in the 1980s; personalities: Ruth First, Helen Joseph, Frances Baard, Winnie Mandela, Frene Ginwala, Mamphela Ramphela, Priscilla Jana, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Fatima Meer, Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, Peter Abrahams, Steve Biko, Rev. Jean-Francois Bill, Alan Boesak, Mangosutho Buthelezi, Sam Buti, Sathasivan Cooper, Jeremy Cronin, FW de Klerk, Alec Erwin, Dennis Goldberg, Archie Gumede, Ahmed Kathrada, Patrick Lekota, Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Rev. Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Aubrey Mokwena, Peter Moll, Murphy Morobe, Ntato Motlana, Zeph Motopeng, Elias Motsoaledi, Oscar Mpetha, Jay Naidoo, Billy Nair, Beyers Naude, Oliver Tambo; David Webster; Rev Frank Chikane; F v an Zyl Slabbert, PW, Chris Heunis, Pik Botha; “Witness to Apartheid” – a series of photographs from the film with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, filmed during State of Emergency.