Cedric Nunn


Cedric Nunn is a South African photographer and educator.
He is known for his photography depicting South Africa before and after the end of apartheid.

Early life and education

Nunn was born into a mixed-race family in Nongoma, KwaZulu, in 1957. He was raised in Hluhluwe, Mangete and Baynesfield.
He attended school in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, up until standard eighth, when he was fifteen.

Career

Nunn moved to Johannesburg in 1982 and began working as a professional photographer at the age of 25. He became one of the prominent photographers to document apartheid resistance in the 1980s.
He went on to co-found Afrapix, a photographic collective that supplied newspapers outside South Africa with images of apartheid, with Paul Weinberg, Peter Mackenzie and Omar Badsha.
He served as the director for Market Photo Workshop, a photography school, gallery, and project space in Johannesburg, from 1998 to 2000. Nunn was also a member of the national executive of the Professional Photographers of South Africa.
Nunn has worked for many nonprofits, newspapers, wire agencies, public-relations companies, and magazines.
He has taught at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in New York City; the University of the Witwatersrand Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg; and The School for International Training.

Publications

In 2012, Nunn published the photography book Cedric Nunn: Call and Response. The book accompanied an exhibition of the same name that opened in Mozambique, New York City, and various galleries in South Africa and Germany.

Awards

Exhibitions

  • 1983 Nichts Wird Uns Trennen Group.
  • 1984 Bosmont Solo.
  • 1984 Women at Work Group.
  • 1985 South Africa: The Cordoned Heart Group.
  • 1987 Stop the Killings Solo.
  • 1987 History Workshop. Wits University. Johannesburg. South Africa. Group.
  • 1988 Children Group.
  • 1988. Ten Years of Staffrider Group.
  • 1989 Beyond the Barricades Group.
  • 1989 Culture for Another South Africa Group.
  • 1989 Health Group.
  • 1990 Zabalaza Group.
  • 1994 This Land is Our Land Group.
  • 1995 The Hidden Years Solo.
  • 1995 Black Looks, White Myths Group.
  • 1996 Colours Group.
  • 1997. Malhawu, Macufe Arts Festival Solo.
  • 1997 NGO Coalition Group.
  • 1997 Blood Relatives Solo.
  • 1997 South African National Gallery Contemporary Collection Group.
  • 1998 3rd Festival of African Photography Group.
  • 1998 Democracy's Images, Bildmuseet Group.
  • 1998 National Development Agency, Workers Library Group.
  • 1999 Democracies Images Group.
  • 1999 Lines of Sight, The South African National Gallery Curated the exhibition "Photographs Denied"
  • 1999 Workers, The Workers Library & Museum Group.
  • 2000 Every Child Is My Child, African Window Museum Group.
  • 2000 Capitals, Espace Matisse Group.
  • 2000 Living In A Strange Land Group.
  • 2000 Emotions and Relations Group.
  • 2002 Group Portraits, Nine South African Families, Tropen Museum
  • Bamako, Maison's Descartes. Amsterdam Photography Biennale
  • 2002 Group Portraits, Nine South African Families
  • 2004 Fatherhood Project
  • 2005 Blood Relatives Solo.
  • 2007 Then and Now Group.
  • 2009 In Camera Solo.
  • 2012 Rise and Fall of Apartheid, International Center for Photography Group.
  • 2012 Cedric Nunn: Call and Response Solo.
  • 2013 Cedric Nunn, Call and Response Solo
  • 2014 US Museum Stellenbosch with Seippel Gallery, Unsettled
  • 2014 Albany Museum, Fort Selwyn, Grahamstown, Unsettled
  • 2015 Cedric Nunn: UNSETTLED at UNISA Art Gallery, Pretora; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg; KZNSA - [KwaZulu Natal Society of Arts]; Galerie Seippel, Cologne, Germany; David Krut Projects, New York, NY, USA; Landesmuseum Hannover. Solo
  • 2016 Cedric Nunn: UNSETTLED at Iwalewa-Haus Bayreuth, Germany. Solo

Photography essays

The following are photographic essays by Nunn. Blood Relatives – an essay begun in the early 1980s documenting the struggle against apartheid Cuito Cuanavale – an essay on the site of a military battle in the late 1980s that brought about profound change in South Africa's political landscapeFarm Workers – an essay documenting farm workers in South Africa's rural areasHidden Years – a photographic essay included in Nunn's first solo exhibition at the KwaMuhle Museum in Durban in 1996; the photographs were all taken in the Natal, Nunn's birthplaceIn Camera – photographs from post-apartheid South Africa, created in collaboration with the Apartheid Archive Study projectJazz – an essay of jazz musiciansJohannesburg – photographs taken in 2000 during the height of transformation in JohannesburgRural Development – an essay documenting rural life under democracySANPAD – a series of portraits of young parents in South Africa Struggle – photographs documenting South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracyThen and Now – a project where eight South African photographers contributed photographs from before and after the end of apartheid