Skin, Body and Interior in South African Twentieth Century Mining Photography
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Beneath: skin, body and interior in South African twentieth century mining photography by Fernanda Pinto de Almeida Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts (Psychology) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Dr. Desmond Painter Co-supervisor: Prof. Steven Robins April 2014 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this assignment is my original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: ______________________________ Date: February 25, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Stellenbosch University. All rights reserved Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT In South Africa, documentary photographs are met with suspicion in critical psychology scholarship either for their connivance with colonial and postcolonial classificatory strategies or their epistemic violence against racialized subjects. This has helped us to take photography, and mining photography within it, at face value, in other words, as particularly embedded in the form of geographic displacement, material dispossession and structural discrimination that race has been historically set to index. Questioning this assumption, while sympathetic to the conditions for its emergence, my method in this thesis is akin to Benjamin’s “literary montage” in Arcades Project (1999, p. 460) – a meaningful and poetic assemblage of a collection of mining photographs from 1910 to 2000, assuming that the figure of the black miner they help to produce is expressed through race, but also, to use Durrheim’s term, troubles it. In other words, my critique constitutes what Nash (2009, p. 23) calls “racial iconography”, to explore the meaningful ways in which race articulates the specificity of appearances at a particular historical time, and in dialogue with a particular set of material circumstances. The latter constitute here the development of capitalist modernity engendered by the gold mining industry, but also a range of historical, literary and philosophical materials that help me situate geographically and historically the figure of the black miner, particularly within three interrelated tropes: surface, digging, and interior. In this manner, I attempt to show the material and abstract underpinnings of the mining archive that allow us to read images as a coherent narrative, understanding my own curatorial process as historically reflexive. I hope to contribute to what Derek Hook (2004, p. 118) has called a “new language of critique” in psychology and a theorization of race in a time marked by a increasing reification of our disciplinary gaze. ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING In Suid-Afrika word dokumentêre foto’s binne die kritiese psigologiese vakgebied met argwaan bejeen, óf weens hulle samespel met koloniale en postkoloniale klassifikasie-strategië, óf weens hul epistemiese geweld teenoor rasgedefineerde subjekte. Die gevolg is dat fotografie, en daarbinne mynfotografie, op sigwaarde, dus histories spesifiek veranker binne die raamwerk van geografiese ontheemding, materiële onteiening en strukturele diskriminasie waaronder ras ingedeel word. Met alle begrip vir die omstandighede waaronder dit ontstaan het, bevraagteken my metodiek hierdie aanname. In aansluiting by Benjamin se Arcades Project (1999, p. 460) se ‘literary collage’ metode – behels my metode ’n betekenisvolle en poëtiese saamvoeging van ’n versameling mynfoto’s vanaf 1910 tot 2000, waarin die figuur van die swart mynwerker enersyds in terme van ras uitgedruk word maar ook, in terme van Durrheim, daardeur versteur word. My benadering behels wat Nash (2009, p. 23) “racial iconography” noem, om die betekenisvolle maniere waarop ras die spesifisiteit van voorkoms tydens bepaalde historiese tye, en in wisselwerking met ’n bepaalde stel ekonomiese omstandighede bepaal, te verken. Laasgenoemde omstandighede omvat die ontwikkeling van kapitalistiese moderniteit soos voortgebring deur die goudmynidustrie asook ’n verskeidenheid historiese, literêre en filosofiese materiaal, wat bydra om die beeld van die swart mynwerker geografies en histories, veral binne drie verbandhoudende raamwerke: oppervlak, delwery, en interieur, te bepaal. My strewe is om die materiële en abstrakte grondslae van die mynargief, waardeur ons hierdie uitbeeldings as ’n samehangende verhaal kan lees, aan te toon. Ek beskou hierdie kuratoriese proses as histories terugwerkend. Ek hoop om, in ’n tyd wat deur voortgesette verkonkretisering gekenmerk word, by te dra tot wat Derek Hook ’n “new language of critique” (2004, p. 118) in die psigologie en teorisering van ras, noem. iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Desmond Painter for his attention, for accommodating my interests and theoretical approach and for his invaluable supervision. I am also grateful for the assistance given by Prof. Steven Robins and for all his suggestions. I'm indebted to Bibiana Gil for helping me with the formatting of the thesis, for assistance with references and all these gruesome bits. The support of my Dubbeld family, Catherine and Gijs, and their editing job was greatly appreciated. I also acknowledge the support of my Dubbeld sisters, Elizabeth and Jessica, and my brother Richard. My special thanks to Marta and Pompilio, exceptional parents in every single way, for offering unlimited support cross-ocean, and for saying yes to my wildest plans for the past three decades. And I am grateful to Narciso, the grandpa who has loved me and whom I have loved. To my friend and partner Bernard, for having nurtured this project with me, for offering me uncountable teas, beers and comments, and for continuously forging a home for our academic and political interests. To Ben, this wonderful little guy that never makes me feel guilty for dedicating my time to a project other than motherhood. Finally, I thank my late grandmother, Conchetta Martins Pinto. She never shared with me her stories of fear, loss and abjection. She taught me, instead, a sense of danger as first language: a language I was never really fluent in and which, perhaps for this reason, I am only able to articulate now, in the writing of this thesis. I dedicate this project to her. iv Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Nomusa Makhubu (2007-2013) Goduka (Going/Migrant Labourers) 1 Figure 2: LP (1971) Coon Carnival with the Golden City Dixies 4 Figure 3: Berni Searle (2001) Snow White still from video projection 19 Figure 4: David Goldblatt (1966) Old mill foundations, tailing wheel and sand dump 22 Figure 5: A cartoon from The Strike Herald of 1913, reprinted from W. Visser, 28 2004, p.420 Figure 6a: Berni Searle (2011) Sketches for Shimmer still from video projection 38 Figure 6b: Berni Searle (2011) Lament II 38 Figure 6c: Berni Searle (2011) Interlaced still from video projection 38 Figure 7: Wilko Milcinovic (1973) Swart Gevaar 40 Figure 8: Kendell Geers (2010) Mined. 18 carat gold 41 Figure 9: Margaret Bourke-White (1950) Gold Miners 42 Figure 10: Len Sak (1961) 44 Figure 11: Margaret Bourke-White (1950) Mining recruits are fingerprinted, the 45 tribesman’s way of signing contract as a gold miner. Figure 12: In K. Schoeman, 1996. 47 Figure 13: T.O. Honiball (1943) in Die Burger 48 Figure 14: STWC (1900) Is this a Stock-Jobber’s War? Some Significant Admissions. 50 Figure 15: National Archives and Records Administration (1945) Wedding rings 51 found by US army soldiers near the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany. Figure 16: David Goldblatt (1966) Lashing 53 v Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Figure 17: National Archives and Records Administration (1945) This pile of clothes 53 belonged to prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp Figure 18: 1922 white miners’ revolt: workers of the world, unite and fight for a 55 white South Africa Figure 19: David Goldblatt (1966) Disused steam hoist 55 Figure 20: David Goldblatt (1971) Team leader and mine captain on a pedal car 56 Figure 21: Francis Galton (1885) Illustrations of Composite Portraiture, The Jewish Type 66 Figure 22: Joanne Bloch (2012/13) Hoard 68 Figure 23: William Kentridge (2007) Nose I (Scissors) 71 Figure 24: Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1989) Golden Phallus 72 Figure 25a: Robert Harris (1880-1894) Kimberley Diamond Mine 74 Figure 25b: Robert Harris (1880-1894) Kimberley Diamond Mine 74 Figure 26: David Goldblatt (1966) Boss Boy 77 Figure 27: Magazine Electrical Experimenter (1919) X-ray inspection of South African 79 diamond miners Figure 28: Stills from Natives X-Ray Issue Title The Young Idea (British Pathe, 1942) 81 Figure 29: Johannes Phokela (2006) Head on collar 90 Figure 30: Transvaal Vogelfontein gold mining postcard 91 Figure 31: J. Wilbur Read (1900) Stopeing, Simmer Deep. 91 Figure 32: David Goldblatt (1965) Pinups in the remains of a mineworker´s bunk. 92 Figure 33: Jonathan Baker, Tade Akin Aina (1995) Some of the “Abandone Places” of 100 the Apartheid Figure 34: Weekend Military Encampment (1942) stills from silant footage South 103 vi Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Africa Gold Mine Figure 35: Family outside Red Location Hut 107 Figure 36: Constance Stuart Larrabee (1936-1949) Professor Meiring Holding 109 Architectural Renderings Figure 37: T. Dunbar Moodie (1950) Schematic of a Typical compound layout 113 Figure 38: House and family of a white