Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe: South Africa, 1977/78

Superb photographs documenting the people, places and activist movements in apartheid-era South Africa

American photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe's understanding of race and class was shaped by Chicago's systemic discriminatory practices; as she later reflected, the city had, "in its own way, a form of apartheid." After encountering Ernest Cole's photographs and training with mentors such as Gordon Parks and Garry Winogrand in the early 1970s, Moutoussamy-Ashe (born 1951) traveled to South Africa at the height of apartheid, armed with her camera. In March 1977 she accompanied her husband Arthur Ashe there, as part of a team filming a TV documentary on sports and apartheid. Returning alone the next year, she visited Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal, and the townships of Alexandra, Kliptown, Lenasia and Soweto, getting to know the country and its people through her lens, gaining special access to various events and documenting encounters with influential figures.

In stark black-and-white and vivid color, Moutoussamy-Ashe's images offer a distinct perspective from an African American photographer on a turbulent period in South African history. This publication, winner of the 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize, features more than 100 of Moutoussamy-Ashe's photographs, many never published before.

This book was published in association with The Gordon Parks Foundation.

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe is an American photographer and activist. She is best known for her work in magazines, newspapers, and several photography books, and also as an AIDS activist.