Williams, Graeme (South African, 1961- ). UNTITLED. Photograph, 1990, printed 2018. Edition of 9, numbered 4/9 and signed by Williams in pencil. 13 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches (image) plus margins. Frmed to 17 5/8 x 24 1/4 inches. In excellent condition. The photograph was taken in Thokoza township south of Johannesburg as Nelson Mandela arrived for a rally weeks after his release from prison. The image was heralded for capturing the sudden shift in power away from the apartheid system and has regularly appeared in exhibitions around the world. The photo depicts a group of black schoolchildren taunting despondent, armed white policemen sitting on an armoured car shortly after Nelson Mandela’s release in 1990. The photo received a lot of attention at the time it was first published, and along with another photo of Nelson and Winnie Mandela which became iconic, helped to establish WIlliams's reputation. In 2018 the artist Hank Willis Thomas appropriated the image, reproduced it without the color, and displayed it in a show in South Africa as an original work. Williams complained asserting that his image had been plagiarized. The Thomas piece was removed from the show, but he denied that he had plaigiarized the work,asserting that the image belonged to those depicted, that the subject matter had been in the news, and that what he had done was more akin to "Sampling" or "remixing" than to plagiarism, and thus accpetable.
