 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(January 2025) |
James Oatway | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1978 (age 46–47) |
| Education | Rhodes University |
| Occupation | Photojournalist |
| Known for | Photography |
| Notable work | Murder of Emmanuel Sithole (2015) |
| Website | Official website |
James Oatway (born 1978) is a South African photojournalist. He is a former Chief Photographer of the Sunday Times . His work focuses mainly on political and social issues in Africa, migration and people affected by conflict.
Oatway graduated from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. [1]
James Oatway is best known for photographs he took in 2015 of the killing of Emmanuel Sithole during Xenophobia in South Africa. [2]
Oatway published two books in 2021: The Battle of Bangui: The Inside story of South Africa’s worst military scandal since Apartheid (Penguin Random House, 2021) [3] and [BR]OTHER, a photographic book documenting so-called Xenophobic violence in South Africa (Jacana, 2021). [4]
In 2021 Oatway published a photoessay documenting the lives of motorcycle food couriers in Johannesburg. [5]
Oatway's work has been published in the Sunday Times, [6] The Guardian, [7] The New York Times, [8] Time, [2] Science magazine [9] Harper's Magazine [10] and various other publications around the world. He has covered conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo [11] and the Central African Republic; [12] War in Afghanistan; [13] The earthquake in Haiti in 2010. [14] Oatway was a member of the picture agency Panos.
On April 18, 2015, Oatway was on assignment for the Sunday Times covering Xenophobic violence in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg when he photographed a group of South African men beating and stabbing Emmanuel Sithole, a Mozambican trader. Oatway and his colleague, reporter Beauregard Tromp, took Sithole to a nearby clinic but were told that no doctors were on duty. [15] They then took Sithole to Edenvale Hospital where he died shortly after arrival.
The photographs were published on the front page of the Sunday Times the following day and caused outrage across the region. [16]
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was deployed to Alexandra the next day in an attempt to quell the violence. [17]
South African President Jacob Zuma said that the pictures were “Unpatriotic” and “make South Africa look bad.” [18]
Four men were arrested and three men were convicted of Sithole's murder. Mthintha Bhengu was sentenced to 17 years in prison; Sifundo Mzimela was sentenced to 10 years in prison and another youth was released with a suspended sentence. [19]
In handing down the sentence, Magistrate Lucas Van der Schyff said: "This specific murder trial caught the entire country's attention because it was caught on camera. We were forced to witness this gruesome attack. By looking at the photos we were forced to share his pain, as he laid in the mud begging for mercy," [20]
James Oatway was heavily criticized for not having intervened to save Emmanuel Sithole's life. Oatway told TIME “I don’t have any regrets about taking the pictures,” adding: "I think my presence there distracted them and did discourage them." [2] In response to criticism that the pictures were published he said: "It’s not easy to look at and I understand that some people might be offended by that, but really people have to know what’s happening, and people have to see the brutality and the vulgarity of what’s going on, so I’ve got no regrets that it’s on the front page". [21] Oatway wrote an article about his experience of the incident which was published in the Sunday Times. [22] According to Oatway his only regret was that he wasn't able to get Sithole to a hospital in time to save his life. [2]
Greg Marinovich, the Pulitzer prize winning photographer and author of The Bang-Bang Club defended Oatway's actions. He wrote: "Would Oatway sleep better had he been able to save Sithole? Surely the answer is yes, but the photographer's duty was to capture those searing images and hope that society will act." [23]
In 2010 Oatway was in Haiti covering the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean country. He was one of a group of photographers who photographed the death of Fabienne Cherisma, a fifteen-year-old girl who was allegedly shot by police during the unrest that had taken hold of Port-au-Prince. [24] [14] Oatway's images of the dead Cherisma featured in a portfolio that was awarded an “Award of Excellence” in the Pictures of the Year International Awards (POYi). [25] Oatway and the other photographers were criticized for acting in an inhumane fashion and benefitting from the death of Cherisma. [26] [27]
In 2022 James Oatway was named as one of Rhodes University’s most distinguished Journalism alumni. [39]
In 2018 James Oatway's work on the notorious "Red Ants" eviction force in South Africa was awarded the prestigious Visa d'or Feature Award at Visa pour l'Image international festival of photojournalism in Perpignan, France. [37]
In 2015 he was on the panel of judges for the News Division of the Pictures of the Year International Awards held at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. [40]
In 2013 he was selected as a Taco Kuiper grantee. [41]
He placed second in the 71st Pictures of the Year International “Newspaper Photographer of the Year” Awards. [32] In 2016 he was the recipient of the Mohamed Amin Photojournalism Award at the prestigious CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards. [42]
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