The collection includes photograph albums, photographs, lantern slides, stereographs, postcards and films by professional photographers and amateurs who recorded interesting places and events. Joseph Barnett, Constance Stuart Larrabee, Jürgen Schadeberg, Paul Weinberg and Greg Marinovich are among the professional photographers represented.
The earliest photograph is a salt print portrait of Thomas Baines. There are albumen prints depicting towns throughout South Africa in the late 19th century, including scenes of the early diamond fields of Kimberley and the rapidly-growing mining town of Johannesburg; also scenes of the Anglo-Boer War, 1880-1881, the South African War, 1899-1902 and of the turbulent period leading to the 1994 elections.
KwaZulu-Natal: A Photographic Record by Hugh Bland
This is a private initiative of Hugh Bland, who has a keen interest in photography and local history. The digital collection is a photographic record of significant historical, heritage and architectural sites in KwaZulu-Natal. All the images were taken between 2012 and 2022.
The site is a work in progress but to date (July 2024) over 88 000 images have been uploaded.
The Brenthurst Library holds the full collection of Hugh Bland’s images.
Visit https://kznpr.co.za/ to browse the collection.
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