Santu Mofokeng

The Black Photo Album/Look At Me: 1890-1950

Santu Mofokeng

The work, which is as much a research project as it is a work of art, is comprised of private photographs collected, scanned, and retouched over a number of years by the artist. Each of the original images were commissioned by urban black working and middle-class families in South Africa between 1890 and 1950, a time when the government was entrenching its infamous policies towards those designated as "natives."