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Launch of Afterimages of Apartheid by Kylie Thomas
The book launch of Afterimages of Apartheid: Photography and Resistance by Kylie Thomas was held on 14 November 2025 at University College Cork
- A film screening of Enver Samuel's film, "Truth Be Told: Room 1008" was followed by a discussion with gille de vlieg, Jillian Edelstein, James Kapalo, Qanita Lilla, Enver Samuel, and Kylie Thomas.
- About the book: Afterimages of Apartheid shows how photographs of the past can be mobilised as a critical tool for understanding the ongoing effects of apartheid in contemporary South Africa.
- Through close readings of significant images made during and after apartheid, the book shows how photography works as a means of documentation, commemoration, and resistance.
- The book considers the ways in which photographs can be used to contest impunity for state violence.
Afterimages includes chapters on the Sharpeville and Marikana massacres, on the re-opening of cases of human rights violations that remain unresolved in the aftermath of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and on contemporary protests against the post-apartheid state. The book makes a powerful case for the role of photographs in drawing the viewer into the past time they represent, issuing a call to the living to remember, respond, and react. The event was made possible through the support of the School of History and Art History and the Radical Humanities Laboratory at UCC. The book can be purchased here: https://www.routledge.com/Afterimages-of-Apartheid-Photography-and-Resistance/Thomas/p/book/9781032848662 And is free to download here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003515401/afterimages-apartheid-kylie-thomas
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For more on this story please contact kthomas@ucc.ie thank you