Bonne Espérance Gallery, 3 rue notre dame de bonne nouvelle, Paris 75002
“Our new exhibit features photos from the 1950s by South African photography icon Jurgen Schadeberg. Schadeberg was a rare photographic witness to the legendary Johannesburg neighbourhood, Sophiatown. In the 1950s, Sophiatown was the epicentre of Black South African jazz, theatre, art and politics. Like its Cape Town counterpart District Six, it was a rare multi-racial community where Black South Africans could own land, and where South Africans of different races and backgrounds mixed in its bars, shebeens and music halls. Like the Harlem Renaissance in New York, the Sophiatown Renaissance produced some of the country’s most important artists, politicians, musicians and cultural trends. And Jurgen Schadeberg was there to document this blossoming of Black culture in 1950s South Africa. His photos of Sophiatown show the grit, glamour and vibrancy of this legendary neighbourhood, whose population was forcibly removed before the area was renamed “Triomf” (“Triumph”) by the Apartheid régime. Shown above are “Bicycle Balance” and “Township Shuffle.” In the next newsletter, we’ll share some of Schadeberg’s photos which documented the tragic destruction of Sophiatown : areas where Black and Coloured South Africans could hold land in a big city and mix with others were increasingly under pressure from the government, and iconic neighbourhoods in Johannesburg and Cape Town were razed for “redevelopment” and repopulation by White South Africans. To get a glimpse of the vibrant music of the South African jazz scene which developed in suburbs such as Sophiatown in Johannesburg and District Six in Cape Town, here are links to a song by The Jazz Epistles founder Abdullah Ibrahim named “District Six” and another by Dudu Pukwana and Mongezi Feza, “Sonia”:
We look forward to seeing you in the gallery when we can re-open. And please let us know if you would like to receive a catalogue with all of the photos available or if you would like to make an appointment to visit the gallery.
Bonne Espérance Gallery, 3 rue notre dame de bonne nouvelle, Paris 75002
