Icon jewelry

tribal jewelry hanging on the headboard

It really hasn't been all that hard to keep my promise to myself to not invest in expensive jewelry while living in South Africa. For one thing, it is a much more casual lifestyle here than the one I enjoyed in my old life in the US. And secondly, the tribal and craft jewelry here is so fun and festive ... and cheap! I have hardly felt the deprivation at all.












For instance I love collecting these icon necklaces. Made from photographic images framed in hammered tin, they pack alot of pizazz for a very small price.

Made in South Africa, the photographs feature iconic images like the ubiquitous Lucky Star pilchard can labels in these earrings. (Lucky Star Pilchards are the South African artistic equivalent of Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup cans in the U.S.)  Or these colorful shweshwe kanga cloth images adorning this necklace.

Nerson Mandela photographed by Jürgen Schadeberg

My favorite pieces though feature the photographs of  Jürgen Schadeberg, a South African photographer and artist. Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist.

Schadeberg became a teacher and mentor to some of the most creative South African photographers of his time, like Bob Gosani, Ernest Cole and later Peter Magubane. As one of the few white photographers who photographed daily life among the black community, he became knowledgeable about black life and culture. As a result, he captured on film the beginnings of the freedom movement, the effects of apartheid and the vibrancy of township life.

Miriam Makema photographed by Jürgen Schadeberg

Schadeberg photographed many historic and pivotal events in the 1950s among them the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the 1956 Treason Trial, the Sophiatown removals of 1955, the Sophiatown jazz and social scene, the Sharpeville funeral of 1960 and pictures of Robben Island inmates. Some of the famous people he photographed include Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Trevor Huddleston and Govan Mbeki. He also documented the Fifties jazz legends such as Dolly Rathebe, Kippie Moeketsi, Thandi Klaasen and Miriam Makeba.

He was forced to leave South Africa in 1964 and went to London where he taught and curated photographic exhibitions, notably for the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In 1972, he returned to Africa where he accepted a position as photographer for Christian Aid in Botswana and Tanzania. In 1973 he travelled from Senegal and Mali to Kenya and Zaire to take photographs. In 1984, Schadeberg returned to South Africa. He continues to work as a photo-journalist as well as making documentaries about the black community.

The photographs are not limited to only South African icons either. This necklace - which I like to wear on Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos - features the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.







 

photo from the African Queen Facebook page

I cannot read the very tiny stamped maker's mark on the back of the necklaces so I can't give credit to the actual jewelry designer. But I bought them all at either Art Africa in Parkview or African Queen in Benmore. Oh, I have to find that Tretchikoff necklace!












PS I went back to Art Africa to buy some more necklaces for gifts and I found out the jewelry designer's name is Beverley Price. And you can special order!