Sue Williamson: A few South Africans (1984)Made at a time when South Africa was still firmly in the

Sue Williamson: A few South Africans (1984)Made at a time when South Africa was still firmly in the grip of apartheid, A Few South Africans (1983-7) was a series which attempted to make visible the history of women, mostly unsung individuals, who had made an impact in some way on the struggle for freedom. The ‘few’ of the title are representative of the anonymous many who were part of the struggle. At the time, pictures of these women never appeared in the popular press, and little was known about them. In order to make their portraits the artist had to photograph them herself or source images in banned books which she unearthed in university libraries. […]An important part of the history of this series of 17 prints is that they were also reproduced as postcards, in order to make the images widely accessible to the general public. These postcards have been described as ‘one of the most important icons of the eighties’. This view is reflected in Williamson’s comment, “My work is about people, rather than about myself. It’s about stories of people in the community. At the same time, I feel allowed to use these stories to make my work so I like to put something back in again … I try to make things that are popular and will be understood by most people who look at it. I don’t just want to talk to other artists, many of whom make work for their peers.” -- source link

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