South African photographer Jo Ractliffe has spent four decades recording the traces of violence and struggle in the landscape of her homeland. A retrospective exhibition at Jeu de Paume in Paris shines a spotlight on her important body of work.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book, reviewed by Jonathan Harwood in B+W 312. He writes: ‘Ractliffe’s photographs, mostly in black & white, reveal the legacy left by apartheid, regional conflicts and population displacements. Her work concentrates on the tension between visibility and invisibility, and the memories and narratives that are carried by landscapes that have borne witness to conflict and now exist as both domestic environments and geopolitical territories. Her photographs – of roads, empty spaces, urban peripheries – are of places marked by war where history looms without ever full revealing itself.’
from the series Shooting Diana (1990-1999) © Jo Ractliffe
Out of Place is on show at Jeu de Paume until 24 May. The accompanying book of the same title is published by Atelier EXB.
Find out more about the exhibition here.
