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Books > Arts & Architecture > Photography & photographs > Photographic collections > Photographic reportage
The killing of thirty-four miners by police at Marikana in August 2012 was the largest massacre of civilians in South Africa since Sharpeville. The events have been covered in newspaper articles, on TV news and in a commission of inquiry, but there is still confusion about what happened on that fateful day.
In Murder At Small Koppie, renowned photojournalist Greg Marinovich explores the truth behind the Marikana massacre. He investigates the shootings near Wonderkop hill, which happened in view of the media, as well as the killings that happened beyond the view of cameras at a nondescript collection of boulders known as Small Koppie, some 300 metres away. Many of the men killed here were shot in cold blood at close range. Drawing on his own meticulous research, eyewitness accounts and the findings of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, Marinovich accurately reconstructs that fateful day as well as the events leading up to the strike, and looks at the subsequent denials, obfuscation and buck-passing by Lonmin, the SAPS and the government.
This is the definitive account of the Marikana massacre from the journalist whose award-winning investigation into the tragedy has been called the most important piece of South African journalism since apartheid.
Exploring some of the world's eeriest places, Abandoned Islands
features American civil war forts, Europe's last leper colony and
South Atlantic whaling stations, along with once grand mansions and
colonial settlements and churches, and much more. Arranged
geographically, the book takes us from New York's East River to
islands off Alaska, from a French Napoleonic-era fort off the coast
of Normandy to deserted villages on remote Scottish isles, from
Venetian sanatoria to Croatian penal colonies, Japanese mining
colonies to Sudanese deserted ports and abandoned atolls in the
Indian Ocean. Leafing through these pages, the reasons for
abandonment are revealed: climate change sealing off fresh water or
river channels, shifting economic forces making life too hard,
religious conflict, or wars disrupting daily life - or the absence
of war rendering a military settlement unnecessary. With more than
180 outstanding colour photographs and fascinating captions,
Abandoned Islands is a brilliant pictorial exploration of lost
worlds.
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Toy Soldiers
(Hardcover)
Simon Brann Thorpe
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R1,016
R926
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In Toy Soldiers, Simon Brann Thorpe blurs the boundaries between
document, landscape and concept-based photography to explore this
conflict. He examines the impact and potential consequences of the
stalemate. Through real soldiers - posed as toy soldiers - he
reveals the current situation in Western Sahara, a nation in
waiting trapped in an historic cycle of colonial conflict,
displacement and endless non-resolution. The work is a unique
collaboration between Thorpe, a military commander and the men
under his command. Shot entirely on location in the isolated and
hauntingly beautiful territory known as 'Liberated Western Sahara'
it is influenced by the historic works of photographers such as
Mathew Brady, Roger Fenton and Edward Curtis. Toy Soldiers provides
a contemporary archive on the issue of non-resolution and the
paradigm of post colonial cycles of violence within modern
conflicts.
Over the past six years Mexico has been consumed by a brutal
conflict - more than 35,000 people have been killed and kidnappings
have skyrocketed. After barely winning Mexico's 2006 presidential
election, Felipe Calderon escalated the battle against the
country's drug cartels in an attempt to marginalise the deadly
gangs and the corrupt politicians and police officers who enable
them. The cartels are ruthless, meting out an awesome brutality
where heads are rolled into crowded discos and dismembered bodies
are abandoned on busy streets. The gruesome nature of the crimes is
at once unbearable and on display for the entire country to see.
The narrative of Mexico's conflict is often reduced to the
bodycount on the border, but the offensive against the cartels has
caused an eruption of violence that is not isolated to one region.
The wounds of this war bleed into every corner of the country,
staining the very fabric of Mexican life with violence, death and
fear. In Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit, David Rochkind moves beyond
simple depictions of carnage to explore the stress and tension left
in the wake of such violence and to illustrate how this conflict
will impact on and handicap Mexico's future.
Nic Dunlop spent 20 years photographing Burma under military rule.
His new book, Brave New Burma, is an intimate portrait in words and
pictures of a country finally emerging from decades of
dictatorship, isolation and fear. From the frontlines of the civil
war to deceptively tranquil cities, from the home of democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the lives of ordinary people struggling
to survive, Brave New Burma is both an historic collection of rare
images and a powerful expose of Burma's crisis. Change has come to
Burma for the first time in decades. But change brings dangers,
including the erasing of history and the invention of a new Burma
in appearance alone. Brave New Burma is a haunting record of a
country now struggling to recreate itself.
This truly global and visually stunning compendium showcases
some of the most breath-taking pieces of street art and graffiti
from around the world. Since its genesis on the East Coast of the
United States in the late 1960s, street art has travelled to nearly
every corner of the globe, morphing into highly ornate and vibrant
new styles. This unique atlas is the first truly geographical
survey of urban art, revised and updated in 2023 to include new
voices, increased female representation and cities emerging as
street art hubs. Featuring specially commissioned works from major
graffiti and street art practitioners, it offers you an insider’s
view of the urban landscape as the artists themselves experience
it. Organized geographically, by continent and by city – from New
York, Los Angeles and Montreal in North America, through Mexico
City and Buenos Aires in Latin America, to London, Berlin and
Madrid in Europe, Sydney and Auckland in the Pacific, as well as
brand new chapters covering Africa and Asia – it profiles more
than 100 of today’s most important artists and features over 700
astonishing artworks. This beautifully illustrated book, produced
with the help of many of the artists it features, dispels the idea
of such art as a thoughtless defacement of pristine surfaces, and
instead celebrates it as a contemporary and highly creative
inscription upon the skin of the built environment.
Our beautiful planet is in danger: the warning signs are there,
year after year – from vast forest fires across Australia to
coral bleaching in the Pacific and the rapid break up of polar ice
and the consequent rise in sea levels, threatening low-lying
coastal communities everywhere. Arranged by continent, Endangered
Places introduces the reader to many of the most stunning natural
locations from the around the world that are currently under
threat. Learn about the magnificent Bornean rainforest, home to
threatened species such as orangutans, probiscis monkeys and the
Sumatran rhinoceros; marvel at the beauty of the Great Barrier
Reef, stretching 2,300 kilometres along Australia’s east coast
and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps;
explore the Aral Sea, formerly the fourth largest lake in the world
and today less than 10 per cent of it’s original size after the
rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects; and
understand the process of desertification, which has led to the
huge expansion of the Sahara Desert and the dramatic shrinkage of
Lake Chad. Illustrated with more than 180 photographs of more than
100 threatened locations, Endangered Places celebrates the beauty
of our planet while reminding us of how easily this can be lost
through human behaviour and climate change.
Red Thistle, the 2011 winner of The European Publishers Award for
Photography, is a powerful and fascinating exploration of the
important but relatively unknown region and people of the Northern
Caucasus. It lies between the Black and Caspian Seas and is within
European Russia. Wars have been fought here for centuries - the
most recent in Chechnya. Monteleone examines the stubborn,
rebellious culture of this region, which although part of Russia,
differs in the ethnicity, religion and social customs of its
inhabitants.
The war in Darfur, which has been controversially termed as
'genocide', is still ongoing, alongside a tardy peace negotiation
process, which began back in 2010. Around 300,000 people are
estimated to have died from the combined effects of war, hunger and
disease. Darfur is inhabited by tribes of both African and Arab
lineage. Both groups had co-existed for centuries, however, as a
result of the increasing desertification of the region in the 1970s
and 1980s, the nomadic Arab tribes began to head south in search of
water and grazing land. They soon arrived at the settle-ments of
the Africans. Skirmishes followed, though the fighting was small in
scale and ended in 1994. The conflict resumed in 2003, when African
rebel groups under the banner of the Darfur Liberation Front
responded to the neglect and marginalization of their communities
by initiating attacks. The Sudan government replied with major land
and air assaults. By the summer of 2003 the infamous Janjaweed had
become involved. By Spring 2004, they had killed several thousand
non-arabs and an estimated million more had been driven from their
homes. Yet it was not until more than 100,000 refugees, pursued by
Janjaweed militia, escaped to neighbouring Chad that the conflict
captured the attention of an international audience.
To describe the complexity of this ever-changing and multi-layered
terrain, Kremer creates aesthetic, orderly and beautiful
compositions that parallel the defense mechanisms developed to
protect Israelis from the painful reality of the current political
situation. Rather than confronting the Israeli occupation in the
way that it has been absorbed by the world's media, Kremer adopts a
more subtle approach. For him, the media's aggressive
representation of reality numbs people's sensibilities making them
callous to the suffering of others.Instead of shock, Kremer seeks
to challenge the viewer, using the landscape as a focus to
understand the overwhelming impact of the situation at the deepest
of levels. Four decades ago the historian and philosopher,
Yeshayahu Leibovich, forewarned that the Israeli occupation was a
cancerous disease in the heart of the nation. As Kremer himself
says, 'my goal is to reveal how every piece of land has become
infected with loaded sediments of the ongoing conflict'.
The remarkable photographs in "Forever Engand" were taken at
Bekonscot Model Village in Beaconsfield. Initially built by a
London accountant to entertain his house guests, it opened to the
public in 1929 and is the oldest model village in the world,
welcoming close to 200,000 visitors each year. Now a world famous
folly, it stands as a tribute to English eccentricity, humour,
determination and craftsmanship. Its particular charm is that it
presents a vision of England firmly rooted in an idyllic 1930s
timewarp. Yet it is its quirkiness that Bailey has captured so
stunningly. In wonderful tableaux of everyday life he creates an
extraordinarily rich and powerful sense of character and
atmosphere. Bekonscot's miniature population of 3,000 people and
300 animals becomes real, their lives frozen in time, as we are
carried back to an England we all know and long for - an England of
our imaginations - when life was simple, secure, unchanging.
In "Our Man in Havana", Graham Greene wrote that 'to each man a
city consists of no more than a few streets, a few houses, a few
people. Remove those few and the city no longer exists except as a
pain in the memory, like the pain of an amputated leg no longer
there.' In this, his third book, John Comino-James shows us the
world that is contained within just a few streets in the very
ordinary neighbourhood of Cayo Hueso in Havana, Cuba. Through
portraits and candid observation, he builds an honest and intimate
record of a small and tight-knit community. This is not the Havana
of the tourist, but a city in which people go about their daily
lives, dealing with the everyday realities that have resulted from
decades of political isolation. In a powerful and beautifully
written afterword, Comino-James intersperses his experiences of
several vists to the area, with fascinating information on the
history of Cuba and the city of Havana.
In February 2001, Foot and Mouth Disease arrived in Cumbria. At its
peak Cumbria was the worst affected county in Britain with a
staggering 41 per cent of all cases. For the local community, the
environmental and social consequences were to prove devastating. As
a local resident, leading UK photographer John Darwell found
himself surrounded by the effects of the disease. Over the next
twelve months, he committed himself to recording what was taking
place. Despite government reports to the contrary, the Cumbrian
countryside became largely a 'no-go area', whilst on the farms
thousands of animals were destroyed, their bodies burnt on the now
notorious pyres. The ultimate clean-up of the infected farms led to
extraordinary lengths being taken to eradicate the virus. "Dark
Days" represents, perhaps, the most complete record of this time
and provides a powerful and emotive insight into one of the most
dramatic and destructive periods in British farming history. It is
published in association with Littoral Arts.
These photographs from Shanghai explore the new culture rapidly
developing in China as it expands its domestic market at breakneck
speed. As elsewhere in the world, the appeal of modern consumer
goods and the benefits they bring is there for all to see. But such
rapid change has its dark side. As the not-so-old cultural
structures become increasingly irrelevant, there are threats to
social cohesion as communal identity gives way to individuality and
alienation. What we are seeing now is a new Cultural Revolution, a
capitalist Cultural Revolution that is more complete, more total,
and no less ideological than the Cultural Revolution that was
instigated by Chairman Mao in the 1960s.
"Lovin' It" is introduced by John Gittings, for many years foreign
leader-writer and East Asia editor at the "Guardian." Gittings
first visited China in 1971 during the Cultural Revolution and in
2001 he opened the "Guardian"'s first staff bureau on the Chinese
mainland, in Shanghai.
The book also includes an interview with Hinton by writer and
cultural critic Nigel Warburton.
London-based photographer Adam Hinton has produced several
documentary projects based on various communities, including a
favela in Rio de Janeiro, a coal mining family in the Ukraine, and
a Himba community in Namibia. His personal and commissioned
photography have won numerous awards and been exhibited at various
galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery and The
Photographers' Gallery, London.
The taxi journey of a lifetime - eight days across India. Andreas
Herzau's photographic travel book records an eight-day journey that
he undertook by taxi from Calcutta to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). It
provides impressive insights into the culture and life styles of
central India and is a closeup view of the country's complex and
stratified society. A fascinating document of reportage and
narration. Andreas Herzau has won the European Press Award on more
than one occasion. He has exhibited his photographs throughout
Europe and his work regularly features in the leading European
magazines. This is his third book.
How does a mudskipper fish manage to “walk” on land? Why is the
Hoatzin also known as ‘The Stinkbird’? And once the female Pipa
toad has laid her eggs, where does she put them? The answers? The
mudskipper can “walk” using its pectoral fins, the Hoatzin has
a unique digestive system which gives the bird a manure-like odour,
and the female Pipa Toad embeds its eggs on its back where they
develop to adult stage. Illustrated throughout with outstanding
colour photographs, Strange Animals presents the most unusual
aspects of 100 of the most unusual species. The selection spans a
broad spectrum of wildlife, from the tallest land living mammal,
the giraffe, to the light, laughing chorus of Australian kookaburra
birds, from the intelligence of the Bottlenose dolphin to octopuses
that change colour when they dream to the slow pace of the
three-toed sloth. Arranged geographically, the photographs are
accompanied by fascinating captions, which explain the quirky
characteristics of each entry. Including egg-laying mammals, birds,
reptiles, amphibians, cannibalistic insects and other
invertebrates, Strange Animals is a compelling introduction to some
of nature’s most curious beasts.
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