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“This book is much more than just a discourse on photography in the land of apartheid. And it goes well beyond sophisticated debate on the artistic merits of images. While keeping the lens trained on the evolution of photography it plunges the reader into a sharp and evocative socio-cultural history of a country in deep conflict.” - From the Foreword by Albie Sachs

Photography is often believed to ‘witness’ history or ‘reflect’ society, but such perspectives fail to account for the complex ways in which photographs get made and seen, and the variety of motivations and social and political factors that shape the vision of the world that photographs provide. Defiant Images develops a critical historical method for engaging with photographs of South Africa during the apartheid period. The book considers the photographs in their original contexts and their relationship to the politics of the time, listens to the voices of the photographers to try and understand how they viewed the work they were doing, and examines the place of photography in a post-apartheid era.

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Defiant Images
Thursday 18 February 2010 from 6.30pm

Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm followed by short talks from the author and guest speaker Professor Amanda Hopkinson (University
of East Anglia)

Please RSVP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or +44(0)20 7253 8801

Darren Newbury is Professor of Photography at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham City University. Defiant Images is published by University of South Africa (UNISA) Press.

This research received funding support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.