20. BARED LIFE: COLONIAL AND NEO-COLONIAL DEPICTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN MINERS IN THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION

Rosemary Lombard

The striking mineworkers at Marikana have become spectacularised. It is a stark reminder that the mine worker, a modern subject of capitalism, in these parts of the world is also the product of a colonial encounter.

– Suren Pillay (2014)

We need to understand how photography works within everyday life in advanced industrial societies: the problem is one of materialist cultural history rather than art history.

– Allan Sekula (2003)