The Bang-Bang Club (book)
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 | |
| Author | Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Bang Bang club |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiography |
| Published | 20 September 2000 Basic Books |
| Publication place | South Africa |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 300 pp. (Hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | 0-465-04412-3 (Hardback) 0-465-04413-1 (Paperback) |
The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War is a 2000 autobiographical styled text about the Bang-Bang Club, a group of four South African photographers active within the townships of South Africa during the apartheid period, particularly between 1990 and 1994. The journalists were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva. The book was co-authored by two of the journalists, Marinovich and Silva.[1]
In the years between 1990 and 1994 the fight from herrenvolk democracy (apartheid) to multiracial democracy in South Africa was extremely violent. The stories painted a picture "of a group of hard-living men who worked, played and hung out together pretty much all of the time", how Greg Marinovich wrote in the preface of the book, however the book aimed to "Set the record straight: …". In 1997 Marinovich and Joao Silva started to write the book.[2] In the acknowledgments were mentioned the many Impimpi – informants who contributed to the book. Impimpi is a Zulu word and in the glossary of the book it is translated as "spy". These 45 people, including the parents of Kevin Carter, helped Marinovich and Silva to write the book "straight". Judith Matloff, also listed under impimpi, wrote in an article: "But the reporters and photographers stationed in South Africa at the time were also compassionate human beings who exposed themselves to danger because they wanted to record history".[3] Other witnesses or impimpi for the book from that era include: James Nachtwey, Peter Magubane, Brian Mkhize, Gilles Peress, Vivian Silva, and more.
The book was first published in January 2000 by William Heinemann, London, UK and then by Basic Books, New York. It was translated into Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and 2015 into German. It is published in 19 Editions.[4]