PEOPLE APART: 1950S CAPE TOWN REVISITED offers a rich and fascinating insight into South Africa at the very beginning of the apartheid era through Bryan Heseltine's previously unpublished photograpy of the early 1950s. Heseltine's work is replete with historical, social and political implications; yet, at the same time, these images transcend the purely documentary to earn a place in the realm of art. The photographs evidence a respect for the subjects and their urban environment that ran counter to the ideology of apartheid; and Heseltine's sensitive approach gave visual expression to the emerging anti-apartheid sentiments of the period, a fact highlighted in the later 1950s when the images were appropriated by the emerging international anti-apartheid movement. Darren Newbury, Professor of Photography at Birmingham City University, contextualises Heseltine's photography through extensive biographical and socio-historical research, and situates this body of work within its contemporary context as well as asking what Heseltine's images offer today, in the post-apartheid era. Contributors Vivian Bickford-Smith and Sean Field explore questions such as the relationship of the collection to memory and identity, and the place of photography in the documentation and making of history. ILLUSTRATION: 100 b/w and colour
