Kally shares visual history

Published Nov 13, 2014

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He caught the leading lights of the struggle on film and has been equally adept at recording the intimate and poignant moments of everyday life. Kamcilla Pillay speaks to veteran photographer, Ranjith Kally

A snapshot of the reality of apartheid is what photojournalist Ranjith Kally hopes his new book – to be released later this month – will provide.

Memory Against Forgetting: A Photographic Journey of Our Shared History is a collection of historic black and white photographs capturing some of the highlights in Kally’s 60-year career.

It will be launched in Johannesburg on November 20, with the Cape Town and Durban launches on November 26 and 27.

It is co-authored by Kalim Rajab.

“The younger generation doesn’t know about the kinds of hardships people suffered under the apartheid government. I hope my book helps to educate them,” Kally told the Daily News this week.

The 89-year-old said that he had been toying with the idea for many years after the release of his other book, The Struggle: 60 years in Focus, in 2004.

Kally, born in Isipingo in 1925, to second-generation immigrants from India who worked in the sugar cane fields, left school in Standard 6 (Grade 8), as was the norm at that time.

“I picked up my first camera many years ago at a jumble sale for six pence. It was a Kodak Postcard, I remember,” he said.

He started his career at The Leader newspaper in Durban to help supplement his wages as a shoe factory worker.

“I used to put 850 soles on ladies shoes every day. I did that for 15 years, but I knew that it was not what I wanted to do for my whole life. I didn’t want to be inside a factory when history was happening outside,” he said.

He also worked for Drum magazine and Golden City Post.

Kally said in his book: “The white newspapers of the day never wanted my work. And the subjects they covered were never of black people. Their voices were never heard.”

His favourite picture is simply titled The Chief and was taken in 1960, after the news that Chief Albert Luthuli, the then-president of the ANC, was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Luthuli was in his spaza shop, having just received the news. The shop was about 10km from his home… Even though he had faced extreme hardship and was isolated from his own party because of his adherence to non-violent principles… he was still a joy to photograph,” he said in his book.

He added: “The sad part of this photograph for me is that I remember how close his shop was to the train line – right next to it – where he was killed in 1967.”

In the book, he also hails other prolific photojournalists and writers including his colleagues – Alf Khumalo, Peter Magubane and Nat Nakasa – whose remains were recently repatriated to Durban. (Nakasa died in New York in 1965.)

Apart from Luthuli, Kally photographed a number of struggle luminaries including Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.

In 1967, Kally was admitted to the Royal Photographic Society in London and his pictures have been used in textbooks and on postage stamps.

In recognition of his work throughout the decades, Kally was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in April last year.

He also received a Living Legend award from the eThekwini Municipality in the same year.

The book’s preface reads: “Particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, there continues to be a proliferation of images taken by (Kally). But in the scramble to publish… his images are often used without permission… As such, there is a very real risk of us remembering the image but forgetting the man … which is (also) what this book aims to redress.”

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