Cedric Nunn was born 1957, a South African photographer best known for his work depicting life in South Africa before and after the end of apartheid. He was introduced to photography by his friend Peter McKenzie, who became the first black student to study photography at the Natal Technikon. As Cedric did not have a Matric, he was not eligible to study himself, but became a photography de facto student, as Peter shared his course notes and sneaked Cedric into the dark room.
Cedric Nunn first began taking photographs as “quite an angry young activist type”, responding to a personal need to meaningfully articulate his growing interest in politics. He later co-founded the photographic collective of Afrapix, which aspired to represent a record and vision of the country that was otherwise absent.
Afrapix was a very powerful tool for the anti-apartheid movement. It held workshops, hosted exhibitions and trained students in their particular school of photography that blurred the lines between hard news and pure documentary, creating a space for social commentary and interpretation. Afrapix played a crucial role in portraying the real stories of real people affected by apartheid. It supplied newspapers outside of South Africa with images, fuelling the knowledge of injustice and helping to bring the necessary global attention that made the change possible. Completely self-funded the collective was made up of both professional and amateur photographers, and over the course of nearly a decade captured some startling images of our country, helping to open up discussions around what was happening during a very difficult time in South African history.
Cedric later served as Director of the Market Photo Workshop, a photography school, gallery, and project space in Johannesburg, and was a member of the national executive of the Professional Photographers of South Africa (PPSA).
Throughout his career, Cedric has exhibited his work at many shared exhibitions, and hosted his first solo exhibition at the KwaMuhle Museum in Durban. He has published many books as an accompaniment to his exhibitions, such as ‘Call and Response’, which supplemented a 30-year career retrospective exhibition of the same name and serves as a powerful reminder that South Africa’s history haunts the present.
Cedric has also created documentary films, and there is frequently a documentary bubbling in the background of his work. He has made two documentary films to date, which he has conceived and directed. Cedric is committed to contributing to society through his work, in the deep hope that depicting injustice is an act, which challenges the status quo, and helps to bring about change that will leave a positive legacy for the children of Africa.
Nunn have been on the national executive of the Professional Photographers of Southern Africa, a body representing photographers and have been both judge and convener of the Fuji Press Photo Awards and judge on the Vodacom Awards. He is the Director of Endaweni Photographic cc.