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Greg Marinovich

The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War Paperback – September 20, 2001

by Greg Marinovich (Author), Joao Silva (Author), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Foreword)

269 ratings

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During the final, bloody days of South African apartheid, four remarkable young men-photographers, friends, and rivals-banded together

Reading age

9 years and up
Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Grade level

11 and up
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.75 x 9 inches
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

September 20, 2001
ISBN-10

0465044131
ISBN-13

978-0465044139
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John de Gruchy
12
Paperback
27 offers from $3.08
Antjie Krog
63
Paperback
95 offers from $0.99
9
Paperback
19 offers from $19.62
John Berger
2,561
Paperback
148 offers from $2.18
Desmond Tutu
435
Paperback
82 offers from $2.06

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Bang-Bang Club succeeds where other, more self-important histories of the conflict in South Africa have failed." -- -Philadelphia City Paper

About the Author

Greg Marinovich is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and writer who has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. A native of South Africa, he lives in Johannesburg.Joao Silva is a free-lance photographer whose honors include South African Press Photographer of the Year for 1992. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he now lives in Johannesburg. Greg Marinovich is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and writer who has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. A native of South Africa, he lives in Johannesburg.Joao Silva is a free-lance photographer whose honors include South African Press Photographer of the Year for 1992. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he now lives in Johannesburg.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition (September 20, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465044131
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465044139
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,573,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #994 in South African History
- #2,672 in African Politics
- #3,833 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
269 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

269 global ratings

5 star		76%
4 star		16%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Amazon Customer

The book sucks you in

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

This disturbing book must be taken in context. The chaos of apartheid, the 35 mm photography of the day. The violence, the drugs, and the angst. The book sucks you in, and every now and then it spits you back out so you can breathe. Marinovch and Silva (mostly Marinovich, I think) create the swirl of smoke and danger that goes with combat photography. The descriptions of their assignments are vivid and at times heart stopping. They let you feel the physical and emotional toll of being under fire. Awards and prizes they win along the way fade into the haze of what they need to do to themselves to get by. The realization that those "reliefs" are as damaging as the horrors of human violence become evident. We recoil from so much of what war photography depicts, and if you have a sense of art at all you admire the men and women to take those photos. This will let you know some of them, and what they went through to make those images.

6 people found this helpful

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DEBBIE SHERROD

excellent read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2022

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Well written, you feel you are in the action
could not put it down

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CG

Interesting, well written, brutal

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

All the stuff you didn't learn about apartheid in grammar school. Not for the faint of heart. Excellent depiction of how the trauma of war makes an impact on everyone involved.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Fiona Leonard

A challenging read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 30, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a difficult book to read. Stylistically it's well written, but the subject matter is bleak. It is a story of a country that is pulled in so many directions by the factions and ideologies and alliances and bloodlines that twist in on each other. And it is a story that confronts head-on the notion of what an individual can do to make a difference. There are no simple answers or neat happy endings. This is a book I would highly recommend though, if for no other reason than to gain an insight into the people behind the images that we see in our news media. It is easy to forget that while a story may only pass touch our lives for a few minutes, the journalists and photographers who seek them out will carry the memories with them for a lifetime.

5 people found this helpful

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Brad Peters

One of the best books I have ever read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

One of the best books I have ever read. Material sticks with you and lingers. I got a copy for a friend, and have let friends thumb through it. You say you are going to read just a few pages, but hours past before you put it down. Conversations with people who have read this book are never boring. I would highly recommend this book. BTW, stay away from the movie. The movie did not do this book justice.

4 people found this helpful

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P. Nathanael Gough

Haunting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2015

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Disturbing in a multitude of ways, this book offers a view of South Africa's "troubles" through the lens of adrenaline junkie photojournalists. It also offers a look at what constant exposure to violence and suffering of all kinds has on the human psyche of those who bear witness to it. Tough questions rise, not the least of which is the ethics involved in profiting from the suffering of others.

2 people found this helpful

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You are going WHERE?

Terrific read that takes you behind the lens and inside the township battles

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a book truly deserving of a five star rating. It clears up a lot of the controversy surrounding the suicide of Pulitzer winner Kevin Carter. It is a well written and intimate insider view of the emergence of democracy in South Africa and the end of apartheid. It is well illustrated and has a very practical glossary. It is tremendous value for the reader and it will not disappoint.

2 people found this helpful

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Solitudeape

Engrossing and horrific

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2010

Verified Purchase

I think the other reviews spell well to how impressive the story and storytelling is done by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva.

The comment I want to add is my dissapointment at the publisher. This is a book about the work of photographers written by photographers and the images inside are worse than mimeographs from the 80s. I have seen faxes that are better quality and I am disappointed that Basic Books did not do the excellent and heartwrenching work justice with their printing.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Blearyeyedboy

Kevin Carter

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Wanted to read this for many years after becoming interested in the story of Kevin Carter, initially at least because of the Manic Street Preachers song of the same name.

For those who don’t know, you’ll gave probably seen his most famous photograph of a vulture seemingly eyeing up a malnourished baby in Africa. It won Carter the Purlitzer prize which is a major honour but it also haunted him.

The book is a great read, plenty of images and tells the story of South Africa during its move from apartheid to democracy and the pain they all went through.

I bought my copy used, via an Amazon 3rd party seller. No issues.

KBJ

A first hand account of an unofficial civil war

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

Simply wonderful, a narrative of the personal toil that the pressure of reporting conflict exerts on those involved and the what it takes to survive or not. One of the three books you should read to understand modern day South Africa along with Nelson Mandels’s Long Walk to Freedom and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.

J. Reeves

More than just about photographers...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a superb account of the photographers who risked their lives to tell the story of the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. It is however also much more. It is also a social commentary on what was happening in the places in South Africa where white people simply did not go... and did not know what was really happening. I grew up in Brackendowns, a stones throw from Thokoza where much of the book is set, yet as a teenager I was mostly naive to what was happening there. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the history and politics of apartheid and the "New" South Africa.

5 people found this helpful

Patch

The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

The book on which the film is based (film reviewed elsewhere). Events after Mandela's release and the murderous conflict that nearly led into civil war. It shows the price photo-journalists pay personally vividly for that image you might get to see (editor & publisher permitting) in the press prior to the dumbing down of the media into it's present day celebrity based format.

Delivery & packaging excellent

anna

great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

arrived today, can't wait to read it again (read it 9years ago)
Who likes war-reportage and journalism photography and a bit of history (apartheid in South Africa) will be glad to read it although it is quite gruesome in parts

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The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War Paperback – September 20, 2001

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