During the 1970s, South Africa was governed by white supremacists who ruthlessly enforced the apartheid system of racial segregation. People who were not classified as 'white', were stripped of many of their basic human rights. In 1976 widespread protests erupted against the injustices and apartheid began to crumble. Twenty-three-year-old photographer Steve Bloom set out to capture the intense mood of the time.
A major touring exhibition of fifty-five prints from the series was at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery from 4 February to 14 May 2023, accompanied by artefacts from the era, such as publications and posters from the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. Previous galleries include the Guardian Gallery and Canterbury's Beaney Museum of Knowledge. Click to read the promo brochure (opens in a new window). Hard copy available for galleries on request.
A wider selection of images from the exhibition can be seen by interested museums and galleries in a password-protected viewing room. Please contact us for access.
"We were delighted to be able to host your wonderful exhibition and have received so much positive feedback about how moving and thought provoking it is and your work is quite simply stunning. Thank you for enabling us to show it at Leicester's flagship museum." - Jo Jones (Head of Arts & Museums, Leicester City Council).
Cape Town. Racial segregation was strictly enforced.
Green Point, Cape Town, 1977; a residential suburb close to the city centre. The effect of apartheid was to engender feelings of indifference across the colour line.
A policeman jumps out of his van and chases a man selected at random.
Police patrol the streets of Cape Town.
Woman being arrested, Cape Town 1976.
Cape Town's Grand Parade, 1975
Man with plaster on nose, Cape Town
Homeless women, Cape Town
Woman collapses after drinking methylated spirits. Sea Point, 1976
Homeless couple, Cape Town.
Girl with baby brother, Crossroads
Crossroads
Crossroads, near Cape Town
Farm worker's son, the Karoo
Man at home, Clanwilliam. The can of Doom insecticide above his head adds a visual element of dark prophecy in a country at the crossroads of its history.
Many white children were cared for by their black nannies
Whites-only beach, Milnerton
District Six, a mixed race part of Cape Town, was reclassified as a white area, most building destroyed and residents evicted.
A man stands by the remains of his favourite cinema in District Six.
Watching parade from dog toilet, Sea Point
Khalifah performance, symbolic of the power of flesh over steel through faith.
An Idi Amin look-alike, adorned with fake medals, takes part in a parade. The brutal Ugandan dictator was often mocked and cited as a justification for white rule
Woman sick in bed in her makeshift room, a garage. She faced eviction for living in a white area because whe was not working as a 'servant'.
Afrikaans couple going to church on Sunday, Stellenbosch
Woman at home. Western Cape, 1976
Woman with her husband, a stroke patient. Manenberg 1976.
Father and daughter. Manenberg, 1975
Family heading to a wedding.
