Jürgen Schadeberg


Jürgen Schadeberg is a South African photographer and artist.

Overview

Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and in 1951 found employment on Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist.
Schadeberg became the senior figure of the group and a teacher and mentor to some of the most creative South African photographers of his time, like Bob Gosani, Ernest Cole and later Peter Magubane. As one of the few white photographers who photographed daily life among the black community, he became knowledgeable about black life and culture. As a result, he captured on film the beginnings of the freedom movement, the effects of apartheid and the vibrancy of township life.
Schadeberg photographed many historic and pivotal events in the 1950s among them the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the 1956 Treason Trial, the Sophiatown removals of 1955, the Sophiatown jazz and social scene, the Sharpeville funeral of 1960 and pictures of Robben Island inmates. Some of the famous people he photographed include Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Trevor Huddleston, and Govan Mbeki. He also documented '50s jazz legends such as Dolly Rathebe, Kippie Moeketsi, Thandi Klaasen, and Miriam Makeba.
Drum wanted the singer Dolly Rathebe to be the cover girl for one of their issues. Schadeberg took her to a Johannesburg mine dump and photographed her in a bikini. The two were arrested for contravening the Immorality Act which forbade interracial relationships.
In 1959, Schadeberg left Drum to become a freelancer. He was part of an expedition led by Professor Phillip V. Tobias from the University of the Witwatersrand to study the San. These images were published in The Kalahari Bushmen Dance in 1982.
Schadeberg was forced to leave South Africa in 1964 and went to London, where he was picture editor of Camera Owner magazine into which he incorporated a stronger sense of design and increased its pictorial content, and from April to July 1965 he was its editor. He also taught and curated photographic exhibitions in England, notably for the Whitechapel Art Gallery. He then moved to Spain where he concentrated on a career as an artist. In 1972, he returned to Africa where he accepted a position as photographer for Christian Aid in Botswana and Tanzania. In 1973 he travelled from Senegal and Mali to Kenya and Zaire to take photographs.
In 1984, Schadeberg returned to South Africa. He continues to work as a photojournalist, as well as making documentaries about the black community.

Books