They would scan the news and set out early each morning in search of the aftermath of the violence that had gripped the townships the previous night. Marinovich and Silva were among the photographers who risked their lives to chronicle the inconvenient chapter that "rainbowism" would rather forget. I've been given estimates of the death toll ranging from 15,000 to as many as 100,000. They describe the township violence and "necklacing" – a method of killing whereby the victim had a petrol-filled tyre placed around his neck – of the early 1990s, partly aided and abetted by the apartheid regime, as nothing short of a low-level civil war. But others have told me this is a glib rewriting of history. I've heard people assert that South Africa made a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy that was nothing short of miraculous. Last weekend, the Rooke also hosted an event with Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, veteran war photographers and co-authors of the semi-autobiographical book The Bang-Bang Club. The photographs of Roger Ballen and paintings of Mark Kannemeyer are now on show.
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