South Africa

South Africa, through the lens of Gerald Hoberman, is a place of wonder, intrigue and glorious colour, viewed at a time of great change. With awe, he has recorded the beauty of sunrise over God’s Window, the russet colours of autumn in the Cape winelands, and the majestic thrust of the Drakensberg Mountains. His photographs reflect the vivid colours of Ndebele hut exteriors, Basotho hut interiors and the magical mirror-dancing rooms of the owl house in Nieu-Bethesda. Hoberman’s South Africa is also a place where people hawk mielies on the street corner, buy their bread at the Zama Zama cash store and sell sizzling meat from an open barbeque to passersby in the townships. He has captured a beautiful country and its people in a time of excitement and transformation. Yet, he has retained an eye for that which does not change: old places and ancient customs upon which time seems to have no grasp. His photographs are a gift to the country he loves and all who have grown to cherish this land on the southern tip of Africa. This volume includes historically valuable photographs taken of the Bo-Kaap and District Six in the late 1960s, as well as photographs of Robben Island taken shortly after Nelson Mandela’s release.