1986 Photo Contest, Oskar Barnack Award, Individual awards
Photographer

David Turnley

Detroit Free Press / Black Star

01 January, 1985

A man suspected of being a police informant narrowly escapes being killed after a crowd put a gasoline-filled car tire around his neck during a political funeral in the Orange Free State. This method of revenge killing has become known as necklacing. He escaped when a clergyman intervened. This image is part of Turnley’s project South Africans under Apartheid, which became a decisive documentation of South African life in a divided nation between 1985 and 1987. It was realized with the assistance of Detroit Free Press, Turner’s newspaper at the time, and Black Star agency, and photos were published in numerous magazines such as Life and National Geographic. In 1987, his residence and working permits were not extended and Turnley had to leave South Africa. In 1990, after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, Turnley regained access to the country and could pursue his work in South Africa.

About the photographer

David Turnley

American photojournalist David C. Turnley (Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1955) is the winner of two World Press Photo of the Year awards, one Pulitzer Prize, and the Overseas Press Club’s...

This image is collected in