Ossendryver’s classic makes Madiba museum

ANT KATZ

When President Jacob Zuma opened the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory – the official home of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton – last month, Jewish Report photographer Ilan Ossendryver was there. But not to take pictures. One of Ilan’s classic Madiba pictures now hangs at the famous gallery!

Ilan has a rare collection of pictures taken at, and just after, Nelson Mandela’s release from incarceration. In fact, he was one of only two photographers at the release.

RIGHT: Ilan showing his classic picture of Nelson Mandela in the back yard of his Soweto home with then-Wife Winnie and daughter Zinzi on the opening night

Ilan has always allowed the Nelson Mandela Foundation to use his pictures for research and publication purposes – but he has retained the copyright and still sells the rights of reproduction to other publishers.

Ossendryver is the photographer-of-choice to many Jewish and non-Jewish organisations and has been the official photographer to Michael Jackson during his visit to Israel as well as to ex-President FW De Klerk. 

Ilan Ossendryver has been a photojournalist for over 25 years and has covered international news events such as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Gulf War, War in Lebanon, The Israeli Jordanian Peace Agreement and the tragic assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.

LEFT: A Zuma bodyguard (extreme left); Sello Hatang, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation; President Jacob Zuma; and Ilan Ossendryver who is explaining to President Zuma about a picture that he took of Nelson Mandela shortly after Mandela was released from prison.

“President Zuma found the story behind the photograph very interesting,” Ilan told the Jewish report today. In the picture is Nelson Mandela, his then wife Winnie and their daughter Zinzi.

RIGHT: They had all been at a news conference at Mandela’s house in Soweto. Afterwards, Mandela was walking in the back garden of his house and Ossendryver had an opportunity to take photographs of the family. The iconic pictures now form part of the permanent archives – an exhibition open to the public – housed at the Mandela Foundation.

Ilan has photographed at Hosni Mubarak’s palace in Cairo where the late Yitzhak Rabin met Yasser Arafat for the first time. He also documented life under Apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela, amongst many other important historical events and has covered two American presidents, seven Israeli prime ministers, and photographed many well-known personalities from Leonard Bernstein and Pavarotti to Madiba to Gorbachev.

He has vast experience with industrial, corporate and public relations photography as well as documenting social issues. Some of his clients have been Africa Tikkun, Microsoft, Nasdaq, Hilton Hotels, Southern Sun Hotels, Intel, Boeing and many more – and, of course, the Jewish Report.

His photographs have appeared in many international newspapers such as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Forbes, Der Spiegel, South China Morning Post, The Times of London, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Yedioth Acharanot, Maariv, The Johannesburg Star and many more as well as many magazines.

He was the resident photographer of the San Francisco Chronicle in Israel and worked for a major news agency in Israel.

Ilan is currently the resident photographer of the Johannesburg based Jewish Life Magazine and the South African Jewish Report.

Books by Ilan Ossendrywer:

• The Ethiopian Jews of Israel – Personal Stories of Life in the Promised Land – By Len Lyons, PhD – Photographs by Ilan Ossendryver – Foreword by Alan Dershowitz
• The Ethiopian Jews of Israel: Personal Stories of Life in the Promised Land (Jewish Lights) This first book to recount in captivating photographs and candid interviews the profound challenges and inspiring accomplishments of Ethiopian Jews struggling to become Ethiopian Israelis. This book is also unique in presenting the personal stories of Ethiopian Israelis, offering the reader a sometimes painful, sometimes touching look at Israel through their eyes, told in their words through in-depth interviews. Ilan won a Gold Medal at the Independent Book Publishers Awards in 2007 for this work.
• South Africa during the Apartheid era: Short Stories and Images by Ilan Ossendryver – stories are about the hardships and cruelty that Black South Africans had to endure under the Apartheid regime and is illustrated with over 80 photographs of life in SA under Apartheid. The short stories are used to compare the writings of the US Civil Rights Movement to that of the Apartheid era. Ilan’s short stories are used in countries around the world, like Italy, the Philippines, Botswana and others for teaching English.

At the launch of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Ilan hob-nobbed with government leaders, business people, veterans of the Struggle and celebrities, gathered at the high-profile event.

ABOVE: Ilan takes great pride in the fact that this classic among his works forms part of what is now a priceless historical collection of resources chronicling the life of South Africa’s greatest statesman.

President Zuma addressed the audience at the launch, saying the new space housed some of the most important documents on the founding of a democratic South Africa.

“These resources are part of the liberation heritage, the nation’s heritage, and they need to be preserved.”

The centre was a milestone achievement for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Zuma said, and bore testament to Mandela’s vision.

READ MORE ON MADIBA CENTRE OF MEMORY

The date of the launch of the Centre of Memory marked the 20th anniversary of the adoption of South Africa’s Interim Constitution on November 18, 1993, when the groundwork for a non-racial and fully democratic South Africa was laid for the first time. The new document paved the way to the country’s first democratic elections on April 27, 1994.