#135 CAMERA Book Review: Ian Berry - Living Apart

A look through the magnificent work of Ian Berry and his depiction of the ever-changing South Africa with his book Living Apart.

Ian Berry's Living Apart was published by Phaidon in 1985 and brings together photographs made in South Africa between the 1950s and the mid 1980s. Working first as a photographer for Drum magazine and later as a member of Magnum Photos, Berry documented the implementation and operation of apartheid over nearly three decades. The book examines the legal and administrative structures that governed everyday life under apartheid, including the pass laws, migrant labour system, forced removals, segregated housing, education, employment and the development of Black townships. Rather than presenting a chronological account of political events, Living Apart explores how apartheid functioned through the routines of everyday life.

The photographs document a wide geographical area including Johannesburg, Soweto, Cape Town, Durban, the mining regions and rural settlements, recording workers, families, students, religious gatherings, political demonstrations and state intervention. Berry's long term access enabled him to observe both the continuity of daily life and the changing political climate that followed the Sharpeville Massacre, the Soweto Uprising and the increasing international opposition to apartheid. Living Apart stands as one of the most comprehensive documentary records of apartheid produced by a single photographer, providing a detailed visual account of South African society before the dismantling of the apartheid system.

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Phaidon Press; 01 edition (16 May 1996)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 26 x 3.2 x 29.8 cm

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