John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Remembering Joe Deal, 1947-2010

I was rummaging around in the online archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, when I stumbled across a series of photos by the late Joe Deal. I was looking for something completely unrelated, but the images were so strong that I stopped what I was doing and tried to... Read more →

Gordon Parks at the Fulton Fish Market, New York, 1943

It's hard to overestimate the importance of Gordon Parks in the history of American photography. This isn't just because for over two decades ('40s, '50s, and into the '60s) he was the only African-American working within the mainstream of the photographic profession. It's also because of the extraordinarily beautiful and... Read more →

The Vuvuzela, 1945

Ah, the glorious vuvuzela. In this, the season of the Football World Cup, it's been the object of much misguided complaint and derision. In the context of post-apartheid South Africa, however, it's actually "freedom's blaring horn," as the New York Time's Roger Cohen has forcefully argued. It's also a stunningly... Read more →

Poor Whites in South Africa: Deja Vu (All Over Again), Part 2

Here we go again... The New York Times is the latest foreign media outlet to discover, as if for the first time, that there are (shockingly!) poor whites in South Africa. The paper's Lens Blog has just posted an interview with Reuters photographer Finbarr O’Reilly (see below) and a gallery... Read more →

Photo Exhibition: "Soccer Kultcha" @ the Michaelis Art Gallery, Cape Town

It's a good bet that there are more photographers per square meter in South Africa, right now, than anywhere else on earth. Sports shooters and photojournalists have poured into the country, all on assignment, covering the Football (Soccer) World Cup. But let's be clear. Many of the photographers covering the... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 14, More Jamming @ Swingers

Cape Town is the best city in Africa for jazz. Swingers is the best place to hear it. I've said the same thing many times, in many different ways. Cape Town's mix of musicians -- mainstream and experimental, African jazz and Cape jazz, smooth jazz and jazz-rock fusion -- is... Read more →

Cape Town Winter Blues

Cape Town's winter can wear you down. (All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010. Click directly on any of the images to see larger versions.) It's the weather, mostly. Too many days look just like this -- cold, gray, and wet. (The weather goes a long way toward explaining why... Read more →