Afterimages of Apartheid: Photography and Resistance
Kylie Thomas
Afterimages of Apartheid shows how photographs of the past can be mobilised as a critical tool for understanding the ongoing effects of apartheid in contemporary South Africa.
Through close readings of significant images made during and after apartheid, the book shows how photography works as a means of documentation, commemoration, and resistance. The book considers the ways in which photographs can be used to contest impunity for state violence. Afterimages includes chapters on the Sharpeville and Marikana massacres, on the re-opening of cases of human rights violations that remain unresolved in the aftermath of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and on contemporary protests against the post-apartheid state. The book makes a powerful case for the role of photographs in drawing the viewer into the past time they represent, issuing a call to the living to remember, respond, and react.
Routledge
Publication Date: October 29 2025
