LIFE ITSELF, photography and South Africa

256pp., b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w., Reaktion Books, London, 2025

ISBN: 9781836390428

South Africa’s visual history from colonialism to democracy, as depicted in photographic images. Includes work by early European photographers, Drum magazine, Santu Mofokeng, Peter Magubane, Cedric Nunn, Omar Badsha, David Goldblatt, the Afrapix photographers' collective, Jodi Bieber, Roger Ballen, Pieter Hugo, Andrew Tshabangu, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, and many others.

"Life Itself is likely to be the most important book ever published on the history of South African photography. Simon A. Clarke's text is elucidating and the well-chosen photographs for the book are aesthetic and documentary at the same time." Roger Ballen, artist/ photographer 

Simon A. Clarke is Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University. His previous books include Print: Fashion, interiors, art.