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Tuesday, 02 January 2024

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Here’s a gift link if anybody needs it. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/world/africa/peter-magubane-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Kk0.eOIe.bXFSExlPFKNv&hpgrp=c-abar&smid=url-share

Peter Magubane was clearly a very courageous person with his camera. I confess that I am not very familiar with his work. I can see I've been missing some powerful stuff.

It's always fascinating to compare photographers who were contemporaries but followed parallel paths in the same sphere. Specifically, David Goldblatt who died in 2018. Different races, different positions, different strategies, but same destinations.

[Here's a page for David at Pace Gallery:

https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/david-goldblatt/

—Mike]

Takes a particular kind of courage I don't think anyone can say they possess until they are actually engaged in it.

In addition to your observations, Mike, the quote below in The New York Times's obituary points up the singular nature of Peter Magubane. How many photojournalists regularly help the injured or dead? Many photographers decide it's not their responsibility to provide assistance, that they're solely documentarians, nothing more.

“Wherever they shot, if there was someone that needed assistance I would become an ambulance-man, pick up the body, take it to the hospital if the person is still alive,” Mr. Magubane told the commission.

“Sometimes my colleagues wanted to know from me whether was it right for me to assist because my work is to photograph,” he continued, “and I said if my editor ever said to me I should not help — I should not give help when it is necessary — then my editor can go to hell.”

Mike, thank you! I come to your site first thing every morning hoping to read something like this that only you can provide. Do not minimize in your mind what you provide to your readers. In among the ‘routine’ posts about the latest inevitable update to a camera that I, for one could never afford, is this gem of a post that I could NEVER find anywhere else. Please continue to do what you do best…..write…

Like Peter Magubane, Don McCullin turned his camera away from conflict to find peace in landscapes. Their landscape pictures and sunsets are not what we’ll most remember, but listening to McCullin, it’s clear that his landscapes are an attempt to forget.

Ahem... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times

[...But...when I specify The New York Times first and THEN abbreviate it to "the Times," it should be assumed that the second reference refers to the first-named entity, for the duration of that article, no? That's what I was taught. Although I have no formal education in journalism. --Mike the Fake Ed.]

Thanks for those words Mike. I did not know of this man, now I do! And it is good to be reminded that cameras can be powerful agents of change in the right hands.

Such a beautiful man! And a great piece...thank you, Mike!

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