"Narratives: Ritual and Graven Images by Omar Badsha"
2002-10-05 until 2002-11-25
Pretoria Art Museum
Arcadia, Pretoria, , ZA South Africa

The exhibition Narratives spans 25 years of work by photographer Omar Badsha. This retrospective exhibition include work on Ethiopia in progress. Badsha’s photographs speak of history, spaces and rituals that rulers, collaborators and subjects play out in front of his camera and its biased gaze.

The exhibition Narratives forms part of the Bonani Africa Festival of Photography at present being held in Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Omar Badsha was born in Durban in 1945 and grew up in a Gujarati Muslim family. He is a self-taught award winning artist and photographer. He played an active role in the South African liberation struggle as a political and cultural activist and trade union leader.

Badsha was on the forefront of all the major anti-apartheid campaigns in Natal and the Western Cape. After the unbanning of the ANC he served in a number of capacities in the ANC. During the 1994 election he was the convenor of the Mass Democratic Movement.

In 1979 his first book of photographs, Letter to Farzanah, published to commemorate the International Year of the Child, was banned. He played a leading role in shaping the social documentary photography in South Africa and in documenting the popular struggle of the 1980s.

Since 1965 he has exhibited widely in this country and internationally. He has published several photographic books.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for South Africa

Other Important Exhibitions in Arcadia, Pretoria