George Hallet: Home & Exile

George Hallett (1942–2020) developed his practice as a self-taught street photographer in Cape Town, South Africa, during the 1960s. His early photographs, often made in the District Six neighbourhood, documented everyday life within Black communities alongside portraits of key cultural figures. As a South African of mixed heritage, Hallett experienced the discrimination of apartheid, and the restrictions placed on professional opportunities led him into exile. He first settled in England in the early 1970s before later moving to France and the Netherlands. Throughout this period, he continued to photograph South Africans living in exile, creating a visual record of resistance, resilience and cultural identity while restoring dignity to communities frequently absent or misrepresented in mainstream media.

This exhibition focuses on Hallett’s years in England, highlighting his portraits of South African artists, musicians and writers in exile. These include visual artists such as Gerard Sekoto, Deie Feni and Gavin Jantjes; jazz musicians including Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo; and a series of book covers he designed for Heinemann’s African Writers Series, featuring authors including Nadine Gordimer and Chinua Achebe.

The exhibition concludes with Hallett’s return to South Africa and his celebrated series documenting Nelson Mandela’s campaign for the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. These images earned Hallett the World Press Photo Award for People in the News in 1995.

First presented at Clémentine de la Féronnière in Paris in March 2025 as part of Centre Pompidou’s Échos Paris Noir programme, the exhibition was subsequently shown at Liverpool John Moores University Gallery. For Bristol Photo Festival, it is presented at IC Visual Lab, located at 6 West Street—the former home of the South Africa Resource Centre, an organisation that campaigned against apartheid. The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising.

Biographies

George Hallett (1942–2020) was a self-taught photographer from Cape Town, South Africa. He exhibited at Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris (2025); Peltz Gallery, London (2023); Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town (2022); Bozar, Brussels (2018); Bamako Encounters: African Biennale of Photography, Bamako (2017); and EVA International, Ormston House, Limerick (2016). He was also included in Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, curated by Okwui Enwezor at the International Center of Photography, New York (2012), which toured to Haus der Kunst, Munich and Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2013), and Museum Africa, Johannesburg (2014–15).

His work is held in numerous private and public collections, including Iziko – South African Art Gallery; Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town; District Six Museum and Bo-Kaap Museum, Cape Town; and the Library of Birmingham, UK.

Christine Eyene is an art historian and curator. She is co-Director of Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) at Liverpool John Moores University and Research Curator at Tate Liverpool. She has recently been appointed as curator for French Institute Cameroon’s 2027 cultural season. 

Her areas of research and curatorial practice encompass contemporary art from a global perspective, with an interest in African and Diaspora arts. Her practice also engages with socially-engaged initiatives, urban culture, new media, music, design, and architecture.

In 2024 she completed her PhD in Art History at Birkbeck, University of London. Her thesis focused on the relationship between text, African literature, and visual representation in the work of South African photographer George Hallett (1942–2020) under the supervision of Professor Annie E. Coombes.

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