The ' man who framed Mandela', passes away

Jürgen Schadeberg, the German ' Father of South African photography' dies at home in Barx aged 89 – a village he has spent the whole of this century living in – and gets obit in The New York Times

A GERMAN photographer who ' framed' Nelson Mandela – and became his personal friend – has died aged 89 at his home in Barx.

Jürgen Schadeberg is credited as being the man who caught the heroic anti- Apartheid leader on camera more than anyone else, as well as capturing some of the most graphic, revealing pictures of the brutal, racist régime ever to be seen on film, and is dubbed by The New York Times in its obituary of him as ' The Father of South African photography'.

Mandela and Schadeberg became good friends when the latter took pictures of him in prison on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, and later caught him on film once he was released.

At the time, Jürgen had been a long- term expat in South Africa, having moved there when he was 19, and he first photographed Mandela two years later, in 1952, when the iconic future leader opened his own solicitors' firm – the first- ever law practice in the country run by a black person.

Mandela's heroic status as the president who battled institutional racism in his country eventually made him a hero nationally – he has sculptures dedicated to him in central Cape Town, where his autobiography is permanently at the top of the bestseller list, and a statue nearly the size of Rio de Janeiro's Cristo do Corcovado in front of the Parliament buildings in Pretoria.

He was also considered a key ambassador for human rights internationally – the airport in the capital of Cape

Verde, Praia, is named after him.

And Jürgen caught practically all of his most famous moments on camera – as well as other well- known faces in the arts, political and humanitarian world in South Africa, such as Dolly Rathebe in Sophiatown, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Kippie Moeketsi, Moroka, Walter Sisulu, Yusuf Dadoo, Huddleston, and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

As reported in Costa News exactly six years ago, Jürgen was awarded an honorary doctorate from Valencia Polytechnic, via the Gandía campus, where he has often given conferences, presented his documentary The Seven Ages of Music, and staged a major exhibition of his works in 2013, which he repeated in 2017 in Gandia's Borgia palace.

Born in 1933 and growing up in the Berlin area during the rise of the Nazis, Jürgen was no stranger to racism, violence, segregation and human rights abuse when he moved to South Africa and brought the Apartheid crisis to the world's attention.

He moved to Barx de la Valldigna ( La Safor) aged 69, living a quiet life away from international fame and conflict in the picturesque La Drova urbanisation.

After his recent death, Barx town hall issued a message of condolence.

“We'll always remember you with your camera round your neck, giving us your unique, personal vision of life and capturing and immortalising everyday life here in Barx,” it read.