Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Jürgen Schadeberg: Apartheid negatives

Photographer Jürgen Schadeberg has secured an injunction against a picture agency regarding the online publication of more than 200 previously unpublished photographs.

What is particularly disturbing about this story is that in 1964, Schadeberg - who had chronicled Apartheid during the 1950s - 'needed to leave the negatives behind in South Africa, since he was observed by the Apartheid's secret police. At that time he could only leave the country with hand baggage... Nobody knows how the agency came into the possession of the photographs.' (Cloud Computing Journal)
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4 comments:

  1. Darren Olivier10 September 2009 at 09:36

    Hi Hugo - is it disturbing that Jurgen needed to leave the negatives behind or because nobody knows how the agency came into possession of the photographs?

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  2. Anonymous10 September 2009 at 12:01

    Mainly the latter. I find it especially disturbing when copyright infringement is built on theft or misappropriation of the original work. It's particularly galling that a Jew who managed to evade Nazi Germany and came to fight a noble cause in South Africa through his work should find himself robbed not just once (of the negatives) but twice. As the UK's Holocaust (Stolen) Art Bill is quietly trudging through Parliament, I am mindful that art is sometimes not only stolen but subsequently exploited.

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  3. Darren Olivier11 September 2009 at 05:26

    It will be interesting to see if RSA journalists have a problem over similar confiscations in Zimbabwe. You will be interested in this post on Afro-IP concerning the "exploitation" by the British Musuem of alleged stolen art by "colonial looters" http://afro-ip.blogspot.com/search?q=artefacts

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  4. Darren Olivier11 September 2009 at 05:27

    It will be interesting to see if RSA journalists have a problem over similar confiscations in Zimbabwe. You will be interested in this post on Afro-IP concerning the "exploitation" by the British Musuem of alleged stolen art by "colonial looters" http://afro-ip.blogspot.com/search?q=artefacts

    ReplyDelete