JOHANNESBURG LUNCH-HOUR 1951–1963

Abstract

Framing the concerns of this paper are two short photographic essays published in Drum, a South African picture magazine modelled on the British Picture Post and the US Life. Both essays take as their subject the activities of black South Africans during a typical lunch-hour in Johannesburg; the first was published (un-credited) in September 1951, the second by Peter Magubane was published in July 1963. I argue that they represent the beginning and the endpoint in the development of, and possibilities for, a particular genre of photography in South Africa: a highpoint for post-war humanist photography. “Johannesburg Lunch-Hour” is the first photographic essay of its kind to be published in Drum, which up until that point had taken a largely paternalistic attitude towards its black audience. This essay signalled a new focus on the lives of “ordinary” urban Africans, and a more creative and vibrant practice of photography. “Lunch-Hour: A Photographic Essay”, although almost identical in theme and style, was published in a period of tightening apartheid legislation and increasingly brutal repression, which impacted on photographic practice and publishing—by April 1965 Drum had ceased publication as an independent monthly magazine. The paper is part of a larger study to research the development of social documentary photography in Drum, to examine its main themes and characteristics, and consider the social vision it projected. The paper is based on archival research and interviews with Drum photographers and editors.