Was a monicker given to a core group of four South African photojournalists who documented the fall of apartheid during the early 90's. The term "bang bang" refers to the violence that was taking place in the townships during the run up to the first open elections after Mandela was released from prison. The violence was mainly between the
African National Congress (ANC) and the white sponsored
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) of mainly zulu warriors brought in to stir up trouble.
The core group was made up of
Kevin Carter,
Greg Marinovich,
Ken Oosterbroek, and
João Silva other war correspondents like
James Nachtwey were also present during the conflict. Their story was made into a movie which premiered during the
Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 which closely followed the earlier released book (2000) under the same name "
The Bang Bang Club". The movie although interesting didn't capture the internal conflict of what these guys were going through at the time. When someone is being murdered in front of you do you take the shot or try to intervene? Marinovich won a Pulitzer for an image of a burning man being attacked with a machete. When a fellow photographer is wounded as was the case with Marinovich and Oosterbroek (who died of his wounds) do you capture an image before providing first aid? Kevin Carter who captured a Pulitzer prize winning image of a vulture stalking a starving Sudanese girl was often questioned by the press "What did you do to help the girl after taking the shot" nothing. He committed suicide shortly after losing his friend Ken and dealing with all of the violence he had seen during the conflict.
If you haven't seen the movie I suggest renting it, but please go get a copy of the book it is a really good read, and provides a small taste of what these guys went through on a daily basis putting their life on the line to get the shot, chasing the Bang Bang.
