A fearless photographer, Mugabane captured in his lense the violence and horror of a brutal regime. In the process, he risked his life and limb. The lion hearted lensman's punishment included beatings and imprisonment. Of these, 586 days of solitary confinement deserve special mention. A greater tragedy awaited Magubane when his son Charles was murdered in the black township of Soweto. He was also a photographer in his 30s.

A grieving father blamed Zulu hostel dwellers. The man who has been covering violence since the '50s said "It's (violence) never struck me as it's struck me now". But then Magubane had his brushes with death Apartheid police were reported to have been shot at 17 times with shot gun pellets while he was on an assignment.

Unlike the other photo journalists, Magubane thanks to the then South African regime which gave more priority to colour of one's skin rather than his or her's skills did not enjoy the luxury of openly carrying his camera. To catch what he wanted in his lense, he hid his camera in empty milk cartons, hollowed-out bread loaves and even the Bible.

The camera was Magubane's weapon of choice. The shots he took from it were lethal to the regime he lived under and sought to end whether he was looking through his lense or was away from it for a change. Magubane used his camera like a gun. His target never differed; it was apartheid.

The activist-photographer never sought permission to shoot an individual or an incident. If someone felt insulted or considered his labour an intrusion into privacy, he apologised. Magubane wrote history through his shots. Be it an uprising by high school students at Soweto or the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela in the early '60s or the shooting and deaths of 69 unarmed civilians in Sharpeville in 1960,all were blood-smeared mileposts smeared in South African history.

Faced with the option of leaving South Africa to go into exile as Mugabane was a marked man of the apartheid regime, he chose to stay. No intimidation could loosen his resolve of fighting apartheid with his camera.

Having begun his professional career at the South African magazine, Drum, Mugabane gained fame at the Rand Daily Mail newspaper. He also worked for the Time magazine and Sports Illustrated.

His torture and humiliation notwithstanding Mugabane wanted his country to be a beautiful mosaic of Black and white people. He made this point with a photograph of a little white girl being tended by a Black woman in a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg; it was a snap shot which spoke for itself of the absurdity of forced system of racial segregation.

He became the official photographer of Nelson Mandela after his release from prison in 1990. He photographed Mandela till he became the first Black president of South Africa in 1994 after a historic all-race election.; perhaps he chose to distance himself from the powers that be.

A life of strife and career notwithstanding, .Mugabane's take on life was not stoical. His favourite photograph was Mandela dancing on his 72nd. birthday party after his release from prison after 27 years. "You can see the joy of freedom shining in his eyes," Mugabane said. The crusader with a camera shared it too. (IPA Service)