The Great Court

Today I went to the British Museum to see the exhibition - South Africa, The Art of a Nation. It was an outing I had organised for the school arts society and it was preceded by a lecture on the exhibition by the curator, which was so interesting and it made the exhibition more meaningful. The art was linked to the political history of the country, and as usual when it comes to South Africa, much was made of the oppression under apartheid but the years when the British did not exactly cover themselves in glory (for example, forming the first concentration camps where over 26000 woman and children died during the Anglo-Boer war) were glossed over.

I was surprised to find some exhibition items triggered an emotional response in me - like the ballot paper from the 1994 election, the first democratic election held after Mandela was released from prison. I still remember voting in that election - Gavin and I went to vote after work, and we drove to a centre that was on the outskirts of Johannesburg when the sun was setting on the happy queue of people all singing and waiting patiently for their turn to vote. Journalists from Newsweek were there with photographers and they got some award winning photos of everyone standing there against the backdrop of the setting African sun - it was a memorable moment in history.

I think most people have seen photos of the Great Court and Reading Room at the British Museum, designed by Norman Foster which was opened in 2000. I was determined to get a photo that captured the people moving about but today, there were large groups of people and school children just standing about, so very little movement was captured.