Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. From 1946 onwards he studied at the College for Optics and Photography in Berlin, before becoming a photographer with the German Press Agency (dpa) in Hamburg. In 1950 Schadeberg relocated to South Africa, where he joined the staff at Drum Magazine, the most important forum for South Africa’s black majority population. From 1964 onwards he worked in Europe and the US, as well as lecturing at various universities. 1985 marked his return to South Africa, where he was based until 2007. Today Jürgen Schadeberg lives in Spain together with his wife.