, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
Established at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kliptown is among the oldest of the urban ... more Established at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kliptown is among the oldest of the urban settlements that comprise the vast township of Soweto, which lies to the south-west of Johannesburg. Together with townships such as Sophiatown and Alexandra, Kliptown was one of the few places in South Africa where blacks could own property, and for the first part of the century it was home to a rich mix of different cultural and racial groups. Its national historical significance derives, however, from the mass political gathering that took place there on an abandoned patch of land during two days in June 1955. The Congress of the People was convened by a coalition of anti-apartheid organizations led by the African National Congress (ANC), known as the Congress Alliance. Other members of the alliance were the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the Coloured People’s Congress and the Congress of Democrats. The meeting represented the culmination of a year’s work gathering views from across the country and across racial lines that were synthesized into a declaration of political values and human rights to form the basis of collective opposition to apartheid. Nearly 3000 delegates were elected to attend the meeting in Kliptown, which would ratify the final form of what was known as the Freedom Charter.
, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
Doctoral programmes in art and design operate in a considerably different environment than they d... more Doctoral programmes in art and design operate in a considerably different environment than they did only a decade ago. Over this period there has been a steady but consistent expansion in research student numbers, and the debate about the nature and purpose of doctorates generally, has been matched by the debate within the sector about the particularities of the art and design doctorate. One key focus of debate has been research training. This paper reports on one aspect of the Research Training Initiative (RTI) project, which has been running during this period. The paper reflects on the development and redesign of the RTI website as an online resource centre for research students and supervisors, and the response it embodies to the rapidly maturing research environment for doctoral students in art and design. An online resource centre The website is divided into three main sections: • The Research Training Resource Centre • Research Degree Case Studies • Research Issues in Art, Design and Media Research Training Resource Centre This part of the website brings together a range of resources that will be useful to new and potential research students, as well as those already embarked on their studies.
, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
This guide is concerned with designing and managing a research project, and is part of a series o... more This guide is concerned with designing and managing a research project, and is part of a series of 6 publications. Their aim is to provide: an indication of the nature of postgraduate research in art and design, and the shape of a research degree; a guide to generic research skills; ...
In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships... more In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships and areas of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The images depict the city’s African inhabitants and the rural to urban transition that was taking place on its periphery; and the collection includes probably the most extensive visual record of Windermere, an informal settlement whose residents would be subject to forced removal in the later 1950s. The aim of this chapter is to explore the issues that have come to the fore whilst working with this collection. Specifically, I want to concentrate on the consequences of moving from historical research to the curation and display of the photographs for contemporary audiences. The process of bringing historical images back into view poses a number of tricky questions or problems that have to be confronted; not least, in this case, the dislocation of the photographs from the place where they were made and the consequent imperative to re-esta...
In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships... more In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships and areas of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The images depict the city’s African inhabitants and the rural to urban transition that was taking place on its periphery; and the collection includes probably the most extensive visual record of Windermere, an informal settlement whose residents would be subject to forced removal in the later 1950s. The aim of this chapter is to explore the issues that have come to the fore whilst working with this collection. Specifically, I want to concentrate on the consequences of moving from historical research to the curation and display of the photographs for contemporary audiences. The process of bringing historical images back into view poses a number of tricky questions or problems that have to be confronted; not least, in this case, the dislocation of the photographs from the place where they were made and the consequent imperative to re-esta...
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Hes... more In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Heseltine made a series of extraordinary photographs in and around Cape Town. Shortly after he made this work, however, Heseltine left South Africa taking his photographs with him to England. Aside from an exhibition in 1955, they would remain there unseen and largely unknown for more than half a century. Heseltine’s photography provides a unique view of Cape Town at the very beginning of the apartheid period, blending modernist visual influences with social and political concerns. The photographs were made in several areas of the city, each of which occupies a distinct position in relation to the racial zoning and forced removals that were central to the implementation of apartheid: the Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa, Nyanga and Windermere. Heseltine’s carefully composed images depict aspects of social and cultural life and illustrate the diversity of Cape Town’s inhabitants. Working predomi...
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Hes... more In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Heseltine made a series of extraordinary photographs in and around Cape Town. Shortly after he made this work, however, Heseltine left South Africa taking his photographs with him to England. Aside from an exhibition in 1955, they would remain there unseen and largely unknown for more than half a century. Heseltine’s photography provides a unique view of Cape Town at the very beginning of the apartheid period, blending modernist visual influences with social and political concerns. The photographs were made in several areas of the city, each of which occupies a distinct position in relation to the racial zoning and forced removals that were central to the implementation of apartheid: the Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa, Nyanga and Windermere. Heseltine’s carefully composed images depict aspects of social and cultural life and illustrate the diversity of Cape Town’s inhabitants. Working predomi...
, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
Established at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kliptown is among the oldest of the urban ... more Established at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kliptown is among the oldest of the urban settlements that comprise the vast township of Soweto, which lies to the south-west of Johannesburg. Together with townships such as Sophiatown and Alexandra, Kliptown was one of the few places in South Africa where blacks could own property, and for the first part of the century it was home to a rich mix of different cultural and racial groups. Its national historical significance derives, however, from the mass political gathering that took place there on an abandoned patch of land during two days in June 1955. The Congress of the People was convened by a coalition of anti-apartheid organizations led by the African National Congress (ANC), known as the Congress Alliance. Other members of the alliance were the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the Coloured People’s Congress and the Congress of Democrats. The meeting represented the culmination of a year’s work gathering views from across the country and across racial lines that were synthesized into a declaration of political values and human rights to form the basis of collective opposition to apartheid. Nearly 3000 delegates were elected to attend the meeting in Kliptown, which would ratify the final form of what was known as the Freedom Charter.
, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
Doctoral programmes in art and design operate in a considerably different environment than they d... more Doctoral programmes in art and design operate in a considerably different environment than they did only a decade ago. Over this period there has been a steady but consistent expansion in research student numbers, and the debate about the nature and purpose of doctorates generally, has been matched by the debate within the sector about the particularities of the art and design doctorate. One key focus of debate has been research training. This paper reports on one aspect of the Research Training Initiative (RTI) project, which has been running during this period. The paper reflects on the development and redesign of the RTI website as an online resource centre for research students and supervisors, and the response it embodies to the rapidly maturing research environment for doctoral students in art and design. An online resource centre The website is divided into three main sections: • The Research Training Resource Centre • Research Degree Case Studies • Research Issues in Art, Design and Media Research Training Resource Centre This part of the website brings together a range of resources that will be useful to new and potential research students, as well as those already embarked on their studies.
, just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named E... more , just two weeks before he left South Africa to go into exile, a young black photographer named Ernest Cole went to the offices of the United States Information Service (USIS) in downtown to Johannesburg to retrieve a collection of photographic negatives. He had secreted them there for safekeeping during his last few months in the country, a period in which he was acutely conscious his movements were being monitored by the security services. 1 He was not mistaken. A South African Security Police report recorded that he entered the building alone, when nobody was around and retrieved the negatives from a steel cabinet to which he possessed a key. But, assuming this report is accurate, either he removed only a portion of his negatives on this occasion or at some point over the next couple of weeks he decided to return some or all of them to the USIS office rather than risk taking them with him on his departure to Europe via Nairobi. About a month later, on May 30, and now safely in London, Cole composed a letter to his friend and fellow photographer Struan Robertson instructing him to make contact with someone named Rockweiler at the USIS office in Johannesburg, to explain the situation to him and make arrangements for the (remaining) negatives to be transported to London, as he needed them for publication. 2 A South African Department of Justice memo from 1968, requesting that the then published photographic book be banned, makes explicit the US connection and assistance, although the name of Cole's contact has been redacted: "[Cole] specialised in photographs dealing with conditions in locations, hospitalisations, police raids and the poor conditions in which the Bantu lived. He took thousands of photographs of this nature and smuggled them out of the countrymainly with the help of [BLANK] of the American Embassy." Aside from the colour it adds to the story of Ernest Cole's departure from South Africa, what is the significance of this rather obscure note retrieved from deep in the archival records? In this chapter, I argue that the episode can be best understood as a sub-plot within a larger narrative about Cold War visual culture, one that reveals the entanglement of two visual histories usually treated separately: the This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera. Edited by Erina Duganne, Andrea Noble and Thy Phu, 33-65. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2023. Available at: <www.dukeupress.edu/cold-war-camera> 2 photographic documentation of racial injustice in apartheid South Africa and the representation of race in a US convulsed by urban riots, civil rights struggle and militant black power. In the 1950s and 1960s, the conjunction of Cold War, racial conflict in the US and decolonisation in Africa provided a context within which representations of race became subject to international contestation, as part of a broader cultural politics. The political and racial circumstances of South Africaa combination of staunch anticommunism and the perpetuation of white minority rule, underpinned by an ideology of white supremacy and enforced by the violent suppression of resistancepresented a challenge to successive US administrations. In short, the situation in South Africa shone an unwelcome spotlight on domestic racial problems. Furthermore, the policy of apartheid contradicted the postwar regime of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948. In a global political system where the nation state was seen as the guarantor of human rights, a state that flatly refused to guarantee such rights for a majority of its citizens, as a matter of principle, not simply in practice, represented a major contradiction. 3 Despite the fact that the US delegation worked extremely hard to avoid external scrutiny of the situation in the southern states through the lens of human rights, the issue of apartheid was one means by which the issue of racial injustice could be returned to the UN agenda and, to the chagrin of the US, become the subject of international debate. 4 Diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa, therefore, had the capacity to expose contradictions, and reveal some unexpected connections, between US foreign and domestic policies on racial equality. Moreover, the images of racial injustice in South Africa that began to circulate in the postwar period might be seen to contest what Ariella Azoulay refers to as the "the human rights curriculum," at the moment of its formation in debates at the UN. 5 The active support of the US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the campaign, led by Michael Scott, to stop South Africa annexing the League of Nations mandate of South West Africa (SWA) might be taken as a critical example. The SWA campaign was accompanied by Scott's film "Civilisation on Trial in South Africa," viewings of which were arranged by the NAACP, including to delegates of the UN in 1949. 6 The film consisted of documentary footage and still photographs from SWA and South Africa. 7 It was intended both to indict the South African government for its treatment of the black majority, and to This is the accepted manuscript of a chapter published in Cold War Camera.
This guide is concerned with designing and managing a research project, and is part of a series o... more This guide is concerned with designing and managing a research project, and is part of a series of 6 publications. Their aim is to provide: an indication of the nature of postgraduate research in art and design, and the shape of a research degree; a guide to generic research skills; ...
In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships... more In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships and areas of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The images depict the city’s African inhabitants and the rural to urban transition that was taking place on its periphery; and the collection includes probably the most extensive visual record of Windermere, an informal settlement whose residents would be subject to forced removal in the later 1950s. The aim of this chapter is to explore the issues that have come to the fore whilst working with this collection. Specifically, I want to concentrate on the consequences of moving from historical research to the curation and display of the photographs for contemporary audiences. The process of bringing historical images back into view poses a number of tricky questions or problems that have to be confronted; not least, in this case, the dislocation of the photographs from the place where they were made and the consequent imperative to re-esta...
In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships... more In the early 1950s Bryan Heseltine made a striking series of photographs in a number of townships and areas of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The images depict the city’s African inhabitants and the rural to urban transition that was taking place on its periphery; and the collection includes probably the most extensive visual record of Windermere, an informal settlement whose residents would be subject to forced removal in the later 1950s. The aim of this chapter is to explore the issues that have come to the fore whilst working with this collection. Specifically, I want to concentrate on the consequences of moving from historical research to the curation and display of the photographs for contemporary audiences. The process of bringing historical images back into view poses a number of tricky questions or problems that have to be confronted; not least, in this case, the dislocation of the photographs from the place where they were made and the consequent imperative to re-esta...
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Hes... more In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Heseltine made a series of extraordinary photographs in and around Cape Town. Shortly after he made this work, however, Heseltine left South Africa taking his photographs with him to England. Aside from an exhibition in 1955, they would remain there unseen and largely unknown for more than half a century. Heseltine’s photography provides a unique view of Cape Town at the very beginning of the apartheid period, blending modernist visual influences with social and political concerns. The photographs were made in several areas of the city, each of which occupies a distinct position in relation to the racial zoning and forced removals that were central to the implementation of apartheid: the Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa, Nyanga and Windermere. Heseltine’s carefully composed images depict aspects of social and cultural life and illustrate the diversity of Cape Town’s inhabitants. Working predomi...
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Hes... more In the late 1940s and early 1950s the South African-born, English-educated photographer Bryan Heseltine made a series of extraordinary photographs in and around Cape Town. Shortly after he made this work, however, Heseltine left South Africa taking his photographs with him to England. Aside from an exhibition in 1955, they would remain there unseen and largely unknown for more than half a century. Heseltine’s photography provides a unique view of Cape Town at the very beginning of the apartheid period, blending modernist visual influences with social and political concerns. The photographs were made in several areas of the city, each of which occupies a distinct position in relation to the racial zoning and forced removals that were central to the implementation of apartheid: the Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa, Nyanga and Windermere. Heseltine’s carefully composed images depict aspects of social and cultural life and illustrate the diversity of Cape Town’s inhabitants. Working predomi...
Uploads
Papers by Darren Newbury