© José Cabral, self-portrait
José Cabral
| José Cabral | |
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"Photography has become like an authorisation to go where I want and photograph what I feel like. The camera is a type of passport that breaks down moral frontiers and social inhibitions. To photograph people is not to interfere with their lives, but just to visit them." José Cabral |
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José (Miguel Pereira) Cabral was born in 1952 in LM, now Maputo. José Cabral started learning photography from his father, who was a technician on the railways and an amateur photographer and cinematographer. After school he attended an agricultural school in Chokue in the province of Gaza, but in 1969 was conscripted into the army, which at the time was waging a war against FRELIMO. After Independence he subsequently devoted himself to photography. From 1975 to 1978 he worked in the photographic department of the 'National Cinema Institute' before moving to the AIM as a 'foto repôrter'. In 1979 he switched to 'Notícias'. From 1981 to 1982 he worked for 'Domingo', and from 1983 to 1985 in the Ministry of Agriculture as head of the photographic department documenting the culture of cotton, the family sector and other subjects. From 1986 to 1990 he lectured at CFF, and in 1987 he won a scholarship to travel and study photography in Italy. On October 28, 1988, his photograph of apartheid activist Albie Sachs' encounter with a devastating car bomb on the streets of Maputo made page one of the 'New York Times'. In 1998 a scholarship from the 'Mid-America Arts Alliance' took him on a long study trip in the United States. He has four children, and lives and works in Maputo “trying to make a living from photography”. |
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