An eye to the future: iconography in post-apartheid South Africa

Extract

The South African Library is the oldest such institution in South Africa, having been founded in Cape Town in 1818, but its Iconographic Section was not officially established until 1986. Demand for research and copying services has increased steadily since 1990, and we are now receiving a gratifying number of enquiries from overseas picture researchers and specialists.

I have been Iconographic Librarian for about four years, which is not nearly long enough for me to pose as an expert, but in our country there are so few specialists in picture research that those of us who work with pictures soon achieve specialist status, whether warranted or not.

Our collection consists of some 100,000 images, mainly photographs, limited to Southern Africa and covering subjects of socio-cultural interest. It is a reference and research collection intended primarily to provide visual information, and it therefore includes copies of material held by other institutions.