5th Nov, 2020 19:00
Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2020
79
William Matlala (South Africa 1957-)
Photo shoot, greater Johannesburg, Gauteng, c.1990 [Two women]
archival ink print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
Artwork date: circa 1990
Signature details: signed
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 10
Sold for R9,380
Estimated at R8,000 - R12,000
archival ink print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
Artwork date: circa 1990
Signature details: signed
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 10
(1)
image size: 36 x 23.5 cm, sheet size: 42 x 29.5 cm, unframed
Notes:
William Matlala, a worker in the food industry and shop steward in the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), started taking pictures for his union between 1980 and 1986. As the trade union movement became more actively embroiled in the political and economic front in South Africa, Matlala’s photography gravitated from portraiture to documentary, focusing on labour movement activities. His training included several workshops at Photo Teach, Market Photo Workshop, and with the Afrapix photographers’ collective. He also obtained a diploma in photography by correspondence. In 1989, he became a full-time photographer with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and later worked for the South African Labour Bulletin (1992–1993). Since then, he has worked as a freelance photographer. "My work has moved from labour issues to include broader concerns that reflect community projects and development issues. I work day and night as photographer to improve," says Matlala. He has a meticulously organised archive that has recorded not just seminal events of the last three decades, but also his early years as a street photographer. It is one of the rare, comprehensive vernacular photographic collections. In 2018 Matlala's solo exhibition The complete worker: everyday lives and struggles of black workers, 1983-2018, was shown at the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg. The exhibition covered over three decades of labour history in South Africa and drew from 250 000 photographs of workers in factories and trade union activities. The two works o"ered on auction are part of William Matlala’s archive, a unique collection of vernacular photography. The images were featured in The Other Camera book and exhibition (2014) and exhibited at the Center for Humanities Gallery, University of Michigan; Wits Origins Centre, Johannesburg; and Commune 1, Cape Town.
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Auction: Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2020, 5th Nov, 2020
A collection of pan-African works, straddling the terrain between historical and contemporary photography, were auctioned to support the digitisation of African photographic legacies by the Photography Legacy Project (PLP). Bidders participated from across Europe, the USA and UK, Asia, Australia and Africa – a testament to Aspire’s increasing global reach and collectors’ enthusiasm for African photography.
The auction included photographic luminaries such as David Goldblatt, Alf Kumalo, G.R. Naidoo, Ranjith Kally and Ian Berry, as well as more contemporary internationally acclaimed photographers like Guy Tillim, Jo Ractliffe, Syowia Kyambi and Mikhael Subotzky. The lead lot, a portfolio of 12 silver gelatin prints from the legendary photographer Ernest Cole’s seminal 1967 book House of Bondage sold for an astounding R569,000 – a new world auction record.
HIGHLIGHTS
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