Abstract
The Van Kalker Studio, started by J. G. Van Kalker in 1937 at 47 Victoria Street, Woodstock became one of the most popular photographic studios in Cape Town, South Africa. Despite the effects of apartheid legislation such as the Group Areas Act (1950), the photographic studio retained its prominence as an institution in which to mark memorable occasions as it provided a space in which the aspirations of the oppressed could be visually articulated. This article offers an analysis of the way in which Van Kalker studio photographs enabled representations of the self and allowed sitters a means through which to assert themselves visually especially when considered against a backdrop fraught with the socio-economic and political tensions of apartheid. The photographs that were selected speak to questions of the personal and the familial within an unfolding history of the city of Cape Town and offers an historical glimpse as it includes a vast spectrum of people in Cape Town against a background of increasing racism, discrimination and segregation.
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