weekly newspaper.
Ruth Motau’s black and white images have not only become iconic and important emblems of South Africa’s photographic history, they also capture life, at once raw, powerful, solar, dark and empathetic in intimate essays.
From dancers at a Soweto dance class, caught in movement, arms lifted, energy bursting through the image, to patrons drinking beer in shebeens, the overall rolled down to the waist or Toni Morrison, her face beaming in a ray of sunshine, Motau’s gaze is concerned; she takes time to tell a story. The photographs – and the photographer – are never rushed. Shooting demands thinking, preparation, conversations and engagement with ‘the other’ — the person or place being photographed — that goes beyond the click of a shutter.