George Hallett: Home and Exile

Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is pleased to announce 'George Hallett: Home and Exile', an exhibition curated by Christine Eyene, featuring works by Cape Town-born South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020) who lived in exile in Europe from 1970 to the mid-1990s.Introduced to literature, music and visual arts in South Africa, Hallett developed his practice as a self-taught street photographer in Cape Town in the 1960s.

His early images depict street scenes, Black communities, and cultural figures and moments that were to become a major theme throughout his career.As a South African of mixed heritage, his experience of discrimination during apartheid, and the lack of professional opportunities, led him to exile.

He first settled in England in the early 1970s before moving to France and the Netherlands.

In Europe, and on visits to the United States and other parts of the world, Hallett photographed both South African exile and Black life with the intention of creating a visual record that restored dignity to a people that was either absent or misrepresented in mainstream media.

Doing so, he created an incredible photographic archive of Black resistance and resilience both in the place from which he was exiled, and the places that he called home.The exhibition will include a public programme with artists and curators talks, screenings, and performances.