George Hallett: Home and Exile - Preview

Join us for the preview of George Hallett: Home and Exile, an exhibition bringing together works by Cape Town-born South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020) who lived in exile in Europe from 1970 to the mid-1990s.

Introduced to literature, music and visual arts by South African authors Richard Rive (1931-1989), James Matthews (1929-2024), and visual artist Peter Clarke (1929-2014), Hallett developed his practice as a self-taught street photographer in Cape Town in the 1960s. His early images depict street scenes in places such as the District Six neighbourhood, Black communities, and cultural figures and moments that were to become a major theme throughout his career. As a South African of mixed heritage, his experience of discrimination during apartheid and the lack of professional opportunities led him to exile. He first settled in England in the early 1970s before moving to France and the Netherlands. In Europe, and on visits to the United States and other parts of the world, Hallett photographed both South African exile and Black life with the intention of creating a visual record that restored dignity to a people that was either absent or misrepresented in mainstream media. Doing so, he created an incredible photographic archive of Black resistance and resilience both in the place from which he was exiled, and the places that he called home.

George Hallett: Home and Exile focuses on the first part of his exile, with a selection of photographs taken in England in the 1970s and 1980s, bearing witness to the contribution of South African exiles to British culture and society. The exhibition is articulated around three major themes: visual artists that include portraits of pioneering figures such as Gerard Sekoto, Dumile Feni and UK-based artist Gavin Jantjes; jazz musicians, among whom Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo from the famous Blue Notes (later known as Brotherhood of Breath); and his designs for the book covers of Heinneman’s African Writers Series then led by South African-born British editor James Currey. The series published major African writers including Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer and Booker Prize winner Chinua Achebe. This body of work is an example of how Hallett experimented with the photographic medium, both technically, aesthetically, and through the performative scenes his created.

The exhibition concludes with Hallett’s return to South Africa marked by his series on Nelson Mandela during his campaign for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. These images earned him a World Press Photo Award for People in the News in 1995.

First presented at Clémentine de la Féronnière (Paris) in March 2025 as part of Centre Pompidou’s “Échos Paris noir” programme, this new display, in its expanded version, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976 that raised awareness on the atrocities of the apartheid regime and brought international condemnation.

The accompanying public programme includes artists and curators talks, music, spoken word and film screenings. It will also provide an opportunity to engage with the history of Liverpool’s anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s and its legacies today.

Curated by Christine Eyene, George Hallett: Home and Exile is organised by Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) with support from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)’s Institute of Art and Technology, and an Enhancing Research Cultures QR Grant on the theme of ‘Decolonial Research Culture’ developed by Eyene.

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BIOGRAPHY

George Hallett (1942-2020)

A Cape Town-born, self-taught photographer, George Hallett began his career in the mid-sixties as a street photographer under the guidance of Jacky Heyns, Cape Town editor of Drum magazine. In 1966, when the apartheid government reclassified District Six – a culturally mixed neighbourhood of Cape Town – as a White Area, the young photographer, encouraged by writer and artist Peter E. Clarke and poet James Matthews, decided to use his camera to document it before the forced removals and its demolition.

District Six is the place where Hallett encountered literature through his English teacher, the author Richard Rive. It is also at Matthews’ that he was exposed to American jazz for the first time, as well as pioneering photographer Roy DeCarava and Harlem Renaissance legend Langston Hughes. The impact of these first cultural experiences is reflected in Hallett’s photographs both in South Africa and during his twenty-four-year exile.

At the end of apartheid, Hallett returned to South Africa to document Nelson Mandela’s first presidential campaign. These images earned him a World Press Photo Award in 1995. He was subsequently appointed official photographer for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997 and continued to document the new South Africa in the 2000s.

Hallett has exhibited at Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris, 2025; Peltz Gallery, London, 2023; Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, 2022; Bozar, Brussels, 2018; Bamako Encounters: African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, 2017; and EVA International, Ormston House, Limerick, 2016. His work is in private and public collections including Iziko – South African Art Gallery; Michaelis School of Fine Art – University of Cape Town; District Six Museum and Bo-Kaap Museum, Cape Town, as well as the Library of Birmingham, UK.

George Hallett: Home and Exile
Curated by Christine Eyene
23 April – 3 July 2026

Preview: 22 April 5:00 – 8:00pm
Quiet launch: 5:00 – 6:00pm*
Public launch: 6:00 – 8:00pm

*Please note, our events and projects are always open to all. However, our Quiet Launch is for visitors of all ages who require reduced volume and reduced numbers of other visitors compared to our Public Launch. As such, we may stagger entry for visitors to ensure the gallery doesn’t become too crowded at any given time.

If you have any other access requirements, then please contact us and we will do our best to facilitate them.

Exhibition Research Lab
John Lennon Art and Design Building
Duckinfield Street
Liverpool L3 5RD

For more information visit www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk or contact [email protected].

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