billy monk

the catacombs, 1968

the catacombs, 1968

the catacombs, 12 march, 1969

the catacombs, 9 november, 1967

the catacombs, 7 november, 1967

the catacombs, 5 february, 1968

26 february, 1969

the catacombs, 3 december 1967

the catacombs, 3 march, 1968

the catacombs, 14 october, 1968

the catacombs, 19 july, 1967

the catacombs, 29 march, 1968

the catacombs, 6 november, 1968

billy monk was born in 1937, & worked as nightclub bouncer for the catacombs club in cape town in the late 1960s. using a pentax camera with 35mm lens, monk photographed the nightclub revelers & sold the prints to his subjects. his close relationships with many of the people allowed him to photograph them with extraordinary intimacy in all their states of joy & sadness. his images of nightlife seem carefree & far away from the scars & segregation of apartheid that fractured this society in the daylight.

in 1969 monk stopped taking photographs at the club. 10 years later his contact sheets & negatives were discovered in a studio by jac de villiers who recognized the significance of his work. he arranged a first exhibition of the work in 1982 at the market gallery in johannesburg. monk could not make the opening & 2 weeks later, en route to see the exhibition, he was tragically shot dead in a fight.