Peter Magubane, the renowned artist-photographer who photographed the everyday struggles of black South Africans for decades under apartheid, died on Monday. He would have turned 92 on 18 January.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Magubane had ‘created iconic visual records of our struggle for freedom and of the full range of life in our country’.
Magubane joined Drum Magazine in 1955, gaining prominence as one of the few black photographers of the apartheid era.
He covered Nelson Mandela’s arrest and the banning of the ANC. In the 1970s he won international accolades for his coverage of the Soweto student uprising.
He was regularly harassed, assaulted, and arrested. In 1969 he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 586 days.
In the 1990s, Magubane was appointed as Mandela’s official photographer after Mandela’s release from prison.
He was ‘someone who made very big sacrifices for the freedom that we enjoy today’, his granddaughter Ulungile Magubane told Reuters. ‘Luckily he was alive to see the country change for the better’.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) lauded Magubane as a giant in the field of photojournalism who will be remembered as one of the courageous journalists who defiantly opposed the apartheid regime.
Magubane showcased his talent in London during the early 1960s and worked as a correspondent for Time magazine between 1978 and 1980. He contributed to National Geographic, Life, The New York Times, Washington Post, Paris Match, and Sports Illustrated.
The UN High Commission for Refugees and UNICEF also commissioned Magubane.
The South African Order of Meritorious Service Silver Class II was bestowed upon him by President Nelson Mandela. He received the American National Professional Photographers’ Association Humanistic Award for intervening to prevent violence, and became the first black South African to win Press Photo of the Year in 1958.
[Photo: iconic Peter Magubane photo/Screenshot from TikTok]