South African Jewish Museum exhibition by photographer Paul Weinberg, titled ‘Dear Edward’ ends this month.
The Dear Edward exhibition and book of the same title, is a personal journey into Weinberg’s family archives and explores the past as he retrace’s his family footprints in South Africa. Taking him to small towns in the interior of South Africa where the family eventually found a niche for themselves in the hotel trade. The photographs are in the form of postcards to his great-grandfather Edward and are a visual narrative of this journey as he piece’s the jigsaw of his family’s footprints together. A sub theme of the exhibition and book is a story of the ‘old hotel’ which was at one point so central and dynamic in the lives of many of these small towns. Weinberg revisit’s these hotels and explore their whereabouts, and their evolution.
Weaving history, historiographies, memoir, archive into a personal pilgrimage, Weinberg says, “I hope to offer insights and perspectives on a family who made this country their ‘adopted home’. Through the metaphor of the postcard this book sets up a dialogue between my great-grandfather, the past, the present, and asks important questions about who writes history, and who is left out.”
WHERE: SAJM South African Jewish Museum, 88 Hatfield Street, Gardens, Cape Town
WHEN: to end July Sun – Thurs 10h00 to 17h00; Fri 10h00 to 14h00; closed Saturdays and Jewish holidays
CONTACT: T 021 465 1546 or website
