The Bang Bang Club was a name primarily associated with four photographers active within the townships of South Africa during the years following the national referendum which led the dissolving of the apartheid structure. These years betweeen 1990 and 1994 saw faction fighting between the ANC and the IFP supporters in a power struggle after the unbanning of both political parties and was directly black on black violence.
Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva were the four associated with the name, although a number of photographers and photojournalists worked alongside them (such as James Nachtwey and Gary Bernard). A movie about the group, directed by Steven Silver and starring Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Phillippe and Malin Åkerman, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.
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The name "The Bang Bang Club" was born out of an article published in the South African magazine Living. Originally named The Bang Bang Paparazzi, it was changed to "Club" because the members felt the word paparazzi misrepresented their work. The name comes from the culture itself; township residents spoke to the photographers about the "bang-bang" in reference to violence occurring within their communities, but more literally, "bang-bang" refers to the sound of gunfire and is a colloquial form of nomenclature used by conflict photographers.
On April 18, 1994, during a firefight between the National Peacekeeping Force and African National Congress supporters in the Tokoza township, friendly fire killed Oosterbroek and seriously injured Marinovich. An inquest into Oosterbroek's death began in 1995. The magistrate ruled that no party should be blamed for the death. In 1999, peacekeeper Brian Mkhize told Marinovich and Silva that he believed that the bullet that killed Oosterbroek had come from the National Peacekeeping Force.
In July 1994, Carter committed suicide.
On October 23, 2010, Silva stepped on a landmine while on patrol with US soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan and lost both legs below the knee.[1][2] This is the second time he's been injured in a warzone, with his first injury being hit by shrapnel in the face.
Two members won Pulitzer Prizes for their photography. Greg Marinovich won the Pulitzer for Spot News Photography in 1991 for his coverage of the killing of Lindsaye Tshabalala in 1990. Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer for Featured Photography in 1994 for his 1993 photograph of a vulture that appeared to be stalking a starving child in southern Sudan.
In 2000, Marinovich and Silva published The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, a book documenting their experiences.
A film adaptation of Marinovich and Silva's book was shot on location in Tokoza township by South African documentary film-maker Steven Silver.[3] Marinovich worked as a consultant on the film[4] which starred Ryan Phillippe as Greg Marinovich, Taylor Kitsch as Kevin Carter and Neels Van Jaarsveld as João Silva.[5]
A documentary entitled The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006.