{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2019}} {{more citations needed|date=February 2014}}
'''Afrapix''' was a collective agency of amateur and professional photographers who opposed Apartheid in South Africa and documented South Africa in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Afrapix Chronology 1981-1991 {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://sahistory.org.za/article/afrapix-chronology-1981-1991 |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=sahistory.org.za |language=en}}</ref> The group was established in 1982 and dissolved itself in 1991. According to South African researcher and visual historian Kylie Thomas, Afrapix "can be understood as one of the most important schools of South African photography in two senses. The collective provided a way for emerging photographers to develop their craft and to gain from the experience of other more established photographers. Afrapix was also an organisation with a particular ethos and approach, and in large measure its coherence was derived from the unifying force of the collective’s opposition to apartheid. Like the banners emblazoned with the slogan of the United Democratic Front that appear in images by many Afrapix photographers, “UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides”, Afrapix brought together a diverse group of South Africans committed to a form of documentary activism."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Kylie |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003515401 |title=Afterimages of Apartheid: Photography and Resistance |date=2025-07-30 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-51540-1 |edition=1 |location=London |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003515401}}</ref>
== About Afrapix == Afrapix was independently funded by its members, who were both black and white. The group received both national and international feedback, as their photographs were used across the world. Oxfam used photographs by a number of Afrapix members to illustrate their 1990 publication 'We Cry for our Land: Farmworkers in South Africa', and some Afrapix pictures were also used in Oxfam's 'Front Line Africa: The Right to a Future' (1990). Afrapix members photographed their own projects and also conducted workshops in black communities that focused on photography and literacy through artwork. Afrapix members shared their technical knowledge while mentoring individuals in these areas.
As the period was known as the "struggle years," the photographs and projects produced through Afrapix were labelled as "struggle photography." Many of the photographers considered themselves political activists or had a political agenda, and worked to raise awareness about the evils of apartheid.<ref>{{Citation |last=Thomas |first=Kylie |title=History of Photography in Apartheid South Africa |date=2021-04-26 |work=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |editor-last=Spear |editor-first=Thomas |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61663/chapter/553378619 |access-date=2026-04-21 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York, NY |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.706 |isbn=978-0-19-785172-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The various artists of Afrapix agreed that they were a team working against apartheid, but that their inspirations came from different places.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trigger magazine {{!}} Afrapix Photographers’ Collective and Agency |url=https://fomu.be/trigger/articles/afrapix-photographers-collective-and-agency |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=FOMU |language=nl}}</ref>
Many of the images were of rallies or protests, instances of police brutality, and impoverished areas. Kylie Thomas suggests that the history of social documentary photography in the Afrapix period is probably more complex and heterogenous than often suggested, especially when analysing the work of women photographers such as Gille De Vlieg<ref>Kylie Thomas, "[http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0259-01902012000100010&script=sci_arttext Wounding apertures: Violence, affect and photography during and after apartheid]", ''Kronos'' 38 (2012).</ref> and Gisèle Wulfsohn.<ref>Annabelle Wienand, "[http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0259-01902012000100009&script=sci_arttext Portraits, publics and politics: Gisele Wulfsohn's photographs of HIV/AIDS, 1987–2007]", ''Kronos'' 38 (2012).</ref><ref>"[http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/afrapix-timeline-1978-1991 Afrapix timeline 1978–1991]", South Africa History Online.</ref>
A detailed timeline of Afrapix is accessible at the SA History Online website.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/afrapix-timeline-1978-1991 |title=Afrapix timeline 1978 - 1991 | South African History Online |access-date=17 February 2014 |archive-date=1 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101112813/http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/afrapix-timeline-1978-1991 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Principles and Objectives == Paul Weinberg, one of the co-founders of Afrapix, said that Afrapix aimed to be "an agency and a picture library and to stimulate documentary photography" (see 'Art and the End of Apartheid', Peffer, 2009, p. 254) and also set this in the context of the day: <blockquote>photography can't be divorced from the political, social issues that surround us daily. As photographers we are inextricably caught up in those processes-we are not objective instruments but play a part in the way we choose to make our statements.<ref>Quoted by Paul Weinberg, ''South Africa through the Lens: Social Documentary Photography'', Braamfontein, S. A.: Ravan Press 1983. via Krantz, David L. Politics and Photography in Apartheid South Africa. ''History of Photography'', Volume 32, Number 4. Winter 2008. Retrieved 9 May 2013.</ref></blockquote>
== Members == Joseph Alfers, Peter Auf de Hyder, Omar Badsha, Steve Hilton Barber, Gille de Vlieg, Graham Goddard, Dave Hartman, Lesley Lawson, Chris Ledochowski, John Liebenberg, Herbert Mabuza, Humphrey Phakade "Pax" Magwaza, Kentridge Matabatha, Rafique Mayet, Mxolise Mayo, Vuyi Lesley Mbalo, Peter McKenzie, Roger Meintjies, Eric Miller, Santu Mofokeng, Deseni Moodliar, Cedric Nunn, Billy Paddock, Biddy Partridge, Myron Peters, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Wendy Schwegmann, Cecil Sols, Guy Tillim, Zubeida Vallie, Paul Weinberg, Gisèle Wulfsohn, Anna Zieminski
== Conflicts == {{unreferenced section|date=May 2014}} The photographers put themselves at risk each time they worked, given that authority figures might beat or even shoot them.
While working in townships, their works were confiscated at times. The facilities of some Afrapix members were pillaged. Surveillance by Security Police made situations difficult. Photographers could also be detained extralegally.
Since there was no single person or persons in charge of Afrapix, there were contrasts of perspectives and ideas amongst the members. Due to this, disagreements occurred and the eventual split between the more political side and the individual documentary side, which would later be called Southlight.
There were also many criticisms of the Afrapix movement. It was viewed negatively by some who thought the group only showed black Africans as powerless. Various Afrapix photographers themselves said they felt pressured to fulfill stereotypes through their images.
== The Afrapix Consolidation Project == In 2019 a project was initiated by Paul Weinberg, one of the founders of Afrapix, to identify photographs made by members of Afrapix as well as related posters and publications, to digitise this material, and to make it accessible for research. Weinberg worked with researcher Kylie Thomas and archivists at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to locate, digitise and curate the materials. The Afrapix collection can be accessed through the Wits University Research Archives. <ref>{{Cite web |title=AFRAPIX Consolidation Project - WITS |url=https://researcharchives.wits.ac.za/afrapix-consolidation-project |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=researcharchives.wits.ac.za}}</ref>
== Projects == * Omar Badsha, ed. ''South Africa: The cordoned heart: Essays.'' Cape Town: Gallery Press; New York: Norton, 1986. {{ISBN|0620091258}}.<ref group="n">Four photographs from this are shown [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/oral_hist/carnegie/slideshows/omar-badsha-photos.html here].</ref> * Omar Badsha et al, eds. ''Beyond the barricades: Popular resistance in South Africa: Photographs by twenty South African photographers.'' New York: Aperture, 1989. {{ISBN|0-89381-375-3}}. * Victor Levie, ed. ''De Verborgen camera: Zuidafrikaanse fotografie aan de censuur ontkomen'' = ''Hidden Camera: South African Photography Escaped from Censorship.'' Amsterdam: Stichting CASA, 1989. {{ISBN|9035107411}}. * Wendy Davies, ''We Cry for our Land: Farmworkers in South Africa''. Oxfam 1990. {{ISBN|0-85598-143-1}} * Susannah Smith, ''Front Line Africa: The Right to a Future''. Oxfam 1990. {{ISBN|0-85598-103-2}}
==Notes== <references group="n" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.sahistory.org.za/visual-arts-and-architecture/afrapix Afrapix – SA History] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120928033617/http://africasacountry.com/2012/09/26/cedric-nunns-new-york-city-debut/ Cedric Nunn] * [https://el.trc.gov.om/htmlroot/K12/tcolon/grade9/Social%20Studies/Political%20Science/Constitutional%20Design/Notes/Apartheid%20South%20Africa.pdf Apartheid – South Africa]{{Dead link|date=May 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * [http://vcj.sagepub.com/content/10/4/499.full.pdf+html Photographer autonomy and images of resistance: the case of South Africa during the 1980s] * [http://felixfeatures.photoshelter.com/gallery/-/G0000_ctRWHqkPWk/ South Africa: Photographing Apartheid, Felix Features] * [http://www.cedricnunn.co.za/essays/struggle.html Cedric Nunn Photography, Struggles] * [http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/photography-and-liberation-struggle-south-africa-3 Photography and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa, South African History Online]
Category:Photography organisations based in South Africa Category:1980s in South Africa Category:1982 establishments in South Africa Category:1991 disestablishments in South Africa Category:Photojournalism organizations Category:Photo agencies Category:Anti-apartheid organisations Category:Cooperatives in Africa