‘Figures and Fictions’ presents the work of 17 South African photographers, all of whom are currently living and
working in the country. It features works produced between 2000 and 2010, as the first flush of post-democratic
euphoria begins to fade. While the old fixed categories of ‘black and white’ no longer hold, they have not easily
been displaced by the ideal of a post-racial ‘rainbow nation’ of citizens and subjects. In this fascinating and
fraught political context, a new generation of outstanding photographers have joined the established doyens of
South African image makers to produce startling and compelling work.
The book and exhibition include renowned practitioners David Goldblatt and Santu Mofokeng, mid-career stars Guy
Tillim, Pieter Hugo, Zwelethu Methethwa, Berni Searle, Jodi Bieber, and Terry Kurgan, and newcomers to the
international stage Zanele Muholi, Hassan and Husain Essop, Roelof van Wyk, Graeme Williams, Kudzanai Chiurai,
and Sabelo Mlangeni.
Tamar Garb is Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art, and head of the History of Art History department at
University College London. She has written widely on portraiture and the body in nineteenth century art and visual
culture, on contemporary art and on issues of race and representation. Key publications include Bodies of Modernity:
Figure and Flesh in Fin de Siecle France (1994) and The Painted Face: Portraits of Women in France 1814 – 1914
(2007). She was curator in 2008 of the exhibition Land Marks/ Home Lands: Contemporary Art from South Africa at the
Haunch of Venison Gallery and of Gauguin: Maker of Myth at Tate Modern (2010) and The National Gallery of Art,
Washington.