Renowned photographer celebrates Madiba's life

AT A time when the country is still holding its breath about Nelson Mandela's health, photographer Bonile Bam is celebrating the living icon.

Bam is staging a photographic exhibition that celebrates Madiba at the Seippel Gallery at Arts on Main, Johannesburg.

He traces Mandela's life journey, documenting all the places where he has lived before politics took over.

He follows him where he used to hang out as a young boy herding his father's cattle. The story is told through Bam's well-trained lens.

Bam said: "The idea was to tell a South African story. To achieve this, I documented the spaces and structures that governed his childhood, focusing more on struggles, tradition, heritage, culture and memory."

Bam's other passion is to follow the Xhosa culture of circumcision. He has a series of pictures that follow initiates while they are in the mountains.

Born in Kwazakhele township in Port Elizabeth, Bam is not just an ordinary photographer - he is a creative individual.

Though he has worked for many publications, his mind is not in commercial photography, he is a visual artist.

Bam has worked for Business Day, the Market Theatre, The Star, Kaizer Chiefs Magazine, Sunday Times and this newspaper, among others.