Alf Kumalo

Alfred Khumalo (5 September 193021 October 2012), better known as Alf Kumalo, was a South African documentary photographer and photojournalist.

Overview

Kumalo was born in Utrecht near Newcastle in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could. He did a lot of work for the Bantu World.

In 1956, he found a permanent position at the Golden City Post and later received assignments from The Star, a South African daily, Drum magazine, and international publications like The New York Times. He was among the photographers who captured the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960. Kumalo had been encouraged to enter by David Hazelhurst, the editor of Drum.

Kumalo had used his African names Mangaliso Dukuza because he wanted the judging to be impartial and not influenced by his reputation. A picture of him and his award was published by the Star on its front page. "A lot of black people talked about it for days afterwards, because in those days they would only get on to the front pages of white newspapers if they were thieves."

Hazelhurst splashed the picture across two pages of Drum.

Over the years Kumalo photographed and documented many of the historic moments in recent South African history. These include the Treason Trial, the Rivonia Trial, the emergence of Black Consciousness, the Student Uprising of 1976 and the Codesa talks. This was despite numerous periods of detention, arrests and official harassment.

His work has appeared in international newspapers like The Observer, The New York Times, New York Post, and the Sunday Independent. Locally, he also worked for Drum magazine and the long-defunct Rand Daily Mail.

To assist the upcoming generation of South African photographers, Kumalo opened a photographic school in Diepkloof Soweto in 2002.

He died on 21 October 2012.

Books

Mandela: Echoes of an era / by Kumalo; text by Es'kia Mphahlele, Penguin, 1990, Alf Kumalo: South African Photographer, Itala Vivan and Kumalo, Leonardo arte, Through My Lens: A Photographic Memoir, Kumalo, text by Tanya Farber, 2009, 8115: A Prisoner's Home, Kumalo; text by Zukiswa Wanner, Penguin, 2010,

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions

2004 – 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City – a collection of his life's work – the exhibition was much acclaimed 2005 – South African National Editors Forum "Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity" for displaying "courageous journalism throughout his professional career".