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All Shall be Afforded Dignity

The Open-Air Barber

New Brighton Township, Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth)

Linocut on paper
Norman Kaplan, 1994

Black people were blocked from owning property in urban areas by colonial and apartheid laws and so street vendors became the norm. Outdoor barbers are found on almost every main street in South Africa today, each presenting their take on the latest styles and competing for customers based on price, skill and temperament of the barber himself. Kaplan says: ‘I was drawn to the granite face and monumental presence of this customer, by the side of the small figure of the barber.’