https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-10-making-memories-reshooting-postcards-from-the-edge-of-south-africas-pop-culture-history/
Making memories: Reshooting postcards from the edge of South Africa’s pop culture history
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
The moment the global streaming service Netflix decided to celebrate Sowetan newspaper’s 40 years of existence as “The Voice of Black South Africa”, little was it aware of the nostalgic trip it was hauling us all on to. Ditto, the frenzied debate over artistic recognition it would spark.
The heart of the brief was for local photographers to recreate a cultural snapshot of history as witnessed by the Sowetan’s “seers” over all those years, including the portrait of Brenda Fassie’s “Wedding of the Century”.
The commission to photograph “postcards” from the paper’s past, telegraphing history to our uncertain present, should be read as an act of affirmation, as memory-making.