Menu Close
Research fellow, University of Cape Town

Paul Weinberg is a South African-born documentary photographer, filmmaker, writer, curtor, educationist and archivist. He began his career in the early 1980s by working for South African NGOs, and photographing current events for news agencies and foreign newspapers.
He was a founder member of Afrapix and South, the collection photo agencies that gained local and international recognition for their uncompromising role in documenting apartheid, and popular resistance to it. From 1990 onwards he increasingly concentrated on feature rather than news photography.

Weinberg has built up a large body of work which portrays diverse peoples, cultures, and human environments 'beyond the headlines'. It demonstrates a sustained engagement with indigenous people throughout southern Africa, particularly in rural settings.

His images have been widely exhibited and publishes, both locally and abroad. He has also initiated several major photographic projects, notably Then & Now, a collection of contrasting images by eight South African photographers taken during and after apartheid, which is travelling the world.

In 1993 Weinberg won the Mother Jones International Documentary Award for his portrayal of the fisherfolk of Kosi Bay on South Africa's northern Natal coast.

He has taught photography at the Centre of Documentary Studies at Duke University in the United States, and holds a Master's degree from the same university. He is currently senior curator of visual archives here at the University of Cape Town, and also lectures in documentary arts.

Experience

  • –present
    Senior Curator, University of Cape Town