California school’s moving tribute to SA photographer goes viral
● He gave up the limelight to become a teacher, only to find fame in the classroom.
Chester Maharaj photographed some of the famous people of recent history, including Bob Marley, Tina Turner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. But in May the South Africa-born photographer became an internet sensation himself when a surprise video his pupils made to honour him went viral. It has been watched more than 329 000 times.
“I couldn’t believe it — it was all a secret,” said Maharaj when the Sunday Times tracked him down to his home in Tustin, California. “Normally I know everything that happens in my classroom, but nobody said a word.”
The video, which coincided with Teacher Appreciation Week in the US in May, was made to honour Maharaj after he was nominated by his pupils as their most influential teacher.
In it, he is seen arriving at Godinez Fundamental High School in a Los Angeles suburb — where he has taught photography since 2009 — thinking he was being interviewed for a student project. Outside, he was surprised to see one of his own famous images mounted on the wall.
But a bigger surprise was waiting inside where dozens of his pupils appeared in a hall filled with his images. The video ends with him in tears and receiving a massive group hug.
Maharaj said he found the experience deeply moving and was surprised by all the attention. He paid tribute to his “smart and hard-working” pupils with whom he has a close bond.
Pressed to explain his popularity, he spoke of his hands-on approach to photography; he insists on participating in photographic assignments, using the least popular camera. “I’ll take the worst camera available, one that is not working properly, and do the same assignment, to show them it is not about the camera. It is to challenge them,” Maharaj said.
He also helps expand his pupils’ world view by sharing some of his experiences of working during the apartheid era for several South African publications, notably Drum magazine and the Sunday Times.
During this time Maharaj was witness to many historical events and got to know icons such as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Fatima Meer and Tutu. He also witnessed first-hand the government’s brutal targeting of innocent people, including many of his colleagues.
He was charged under the Group Areas Act and harassed by the police for living in Hillbrow, which was then a white suburb. He appeared in court at least 13 times, and the harassment prompted him to leave the country in the early 1980s.
He was a wonderful asset: many photographers are good at one thing, but Chester could always be relied upon to cover unrest as brilliantly as he’d shoot Tina Turner, Bob Marley, the Cup Final or a fashion spread
Tony Sutton
Former Drum editor
Maharaj said these formative experiences also helped shape his education philosophy in the classroom: “I tell my students they have to find out who are all these other people with whom they are sharing the planet.”
Former Drum editor Tony Sutton said Maharaj joined the magazine in 1976 when a staff photographer was detained after the June 16 uprising.
“Chester’s speciality before joining Drum was fashion photography, but as the magazine’s only full-time photographer he quickly adapted to the pressure of operating in areas of township unrest, along with the usual Drum formula of sports and showbiz — and those dreadful cover girls that later became less prominent,” Sutton said.
Former Sunday Times journalist Hoosen Kolia, who worked with Maharaj almost three decades ago in Durban, said: “I am not surprised at the recognition Chester’s work has received. He is a master of the craft and he was always studying photography. Those were the days when you took and processed your own pictures . . . so you had to know what you were doing.”
Kolia said Maharaj had covered some turbulent times, especially when he worked for Drum. “Chester was always in the thick of it, with only his Nikon between him and the utter chaos around him. He was the sort of photographer who would pull out a light meter in the middle of a riot so that he got the lighting right.
“What is so wonderful is that Chester’s young students in California were aware of the historic photos he had taken in South Africa . . . and they surprised him by displaying enlargements of the pictures.”