Cedric Nunn is a South African photographer best known for his photography depicting the country before and after the end of apartheid.
Career
Nunn was born into a mixed-race family in Nongoma, KwaZulu, in 1957. He was raised in Hluhluwe, Mangete and Baynesfield. He attended school in Ixopo KwaZulu-Natal up until standard eighth, when he was fifteen. He moved to Johannesburg in 1982 and began working as a professional photographer at the age of 25. Nunn became one of the prominent photographers to document apartheid resistance in the 1980s. He went on to co-found Afrapix, a photographic collective that supplied newspapers outside South Africa with images of apartheid, with Paul Weinberg, Peter Mackenzie and Omar Badsha. He served as the director for Market Photo Workshop, a photography school, gallery, and project space in Johannesburg, from 1998 to 2000. Nunn was also a member of the national executive of the Professional Photographers of South Africa. Nunn has worked for many nonprofits, newspapers, wire agencies, PR companies, and magazines. He has taught at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, the University of the Witwatersrand Wits School of Arts, and The School for International Training.
Publications
In 2012, Nunn published the photography book Cedric Nunn: Call and Response. The book accompanied an exhibition of the same name that opened in Mozambique, New York, and various galleries in South Africa and Germany.
2014 US Museum Stellenbosch with Seippel Gallery, Unsettled
2014 Albany Museum, Fort Selwyn, Grahamstown, Unsettled
2015 Cedric Nunn: UNSETTLED at UNISA Art Gallery, Pretora; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg; KZNSA Gallery Durban; Galerie Seippel, Cologne, Germany; David Krut Projects, New York, NY, USA; Landesmuseum Hannover. Solo
2016 Cedric Nunn: UNSETTLED at Iwalewa-Haus Bayreuth, Germany. Solo
Photography essays
The following are photographic essay by Nunn.
Blood Relatives – An essay begun in the early eighties documenting the struggle against apartheid
Cuito Cuanavale – An essay on the site of a military battle in the late eighties that brought about profound change in South Africa's political landscape
Farm Workers – Documenting farm workers in South Africa's rural areas.
Hidden Years – A photo essay included in Nunn's first solo exhibition at the KwaMuhle Museum in Durban in 1996. The photos were all taken in the Natal, Nunn's birthplace.
In Camera – Photos from post-Apartheid South Africa, created in collaboration with the Apartheid Archive Study project.
Jazz – An essay of Jazz musicians.
Johannesburg – Photos taken in 2000 during the height of transformation in Johannesburg.
Rural Development – Documenting rural life under democracy.
SANPAD – A series of portraits of young parents in South Africa.
Struggle – Photos documenting South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy
Then and Now – A project where eight South African photographers contribute photos from before and after the end of apartheid.
