Men and Boys in Front of Store, Soweto, Johannesburg

"Soweto, Johannesburg, 1948." Original caption by Constance Stuart Larrabee. Photographic image of older man sitting in chair with a paper in his hand. Behind him is his fish and chip shop and general store. Leaning against the store window is a young man who is talking to the owner, and two boys. There is also a man in the doorway of the store. Soweto is a south-western township near Johannesburg. Photograph by Constance Stuart Larrabee, 1948.

This photograph was published in Constance Stuart Larrabee's book "Constance Stuart Larrabee: Time Exposure." (Yale Center for British Art: New Haven, CT, 1995.)

This photograph was featured in a brochure in conjunction with Constance Stuart Larrabee's exhibit "South Africa 1936-1949, Photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee at the National Museum of African Art, Sept. 20 1998- Feb. 28, 1999. The caption in the brochure reads as follows: "Conversation, South-Western Townships (now known as Soweto), near Johannesburg, 1948."

In 1945, Constance Stuart returned from her assignment as the first female South African war correspondent in World War II. Her reputation as a photographer grew. She maintained a photographic studio in Pretoria and Johannesburg. This series of images which she entitled "Johannesburg Black Man" depict life in downtown Johannesburg and in parts of the city, where Black South Africans lived, such as Sophiatown, Pimville, and Newclare. A second series of images focuses on Father Huddleston's work in Sophiatown. In 1948-1949, in the early days of apartheid, Stuart documented the building of the South Western townships (Soweto) and the way Africans adjusted to this new environment.

There is one 8x10 black and white fiber-based print of this negative in the Constance Stuart Larrabee Collection. EEPA also produced an 8x10 study print for reference purposes.