The Kyle Kauffman Gallery is pleased to present Travelers: South African Photographs from Another Era, South African photographer Raymond Keeping’s first solo exhibition in the United States. The Zulu and Xhosa men and women depicted in these photographs were traveling the same roads as Keeping, but their respective journeys, both literal and figurative, were extremely different.

The immediacy and luminosity of these prints make it difficult to believe that the actual photographs were taken half a century ago. Virtual time capsules of South Africa’s colonial past, these images are believed to be the earliest color photographs that document the material culture of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples. Beyond this anthropological significance, the aesthetic value of the work lies in the way Keeping reinvents the genre of portraiture by contextualizing the subjects within their denuded landscape. With combined vibrancy and striking affect, the pieces capture the character of the individual amid featureless environs. These men and women, refusing to be relegated passively to the archive of history, resolutely return the gaze of the contemporary viewer.

Recently found among old art supplies ready to be discarded, the original 1958 glass slides from which these works were printed remain in nearly pristine condition. In 2006, Keeping commenced the selection, restoration, editing, and production of this project. Sadly, he passed away in August of that year, before he could witness the mounting of the exhibition, the natural culmination of his artistic career. Fortunately, these stunning photographs remain a testament to Keeping’s remarkable ability to both instantaneously isolate and capture an image, and then extract it from its historical moment, thus initiating a dialogue between their past and our present.

The Kyle Kauffman Gallery, the newest addition to the red-hot art scene in New York City, is located between Chelsea and Hells Kitchen. The focus of this space is to exhibit the highest quality artwork by both established and emerging artists from Africa and from the African Diaspora. By doing so, the Kyle Kauffman Gallery provides a unique perspective on the vast and ever-emerging contemporary art scene by presenting new and exciting examples of the cultural and aesthetic production of Africa, the area of the world almost completely neglected by most art galleries and cultural institutions.