John Liebenberg was a senior and established news photographer whose work has been exhibited in Africa and Europe. His Namibian photographic collection documenting Swapo’s war of Liberation and the South African occupation is widely used by historians, researchers and film makers. His photographs critically inform the contemporary reading of the Continent’s recent History.
He was introduced to Namibia in 1976 when, together with his fellow conscripts, he was sent to Ondangwa Air-force base near the border with Angola. He later returned to Namibia and in 1985 was appointed photographer for a weekly news platform, ‘The Namibian’. Following independence, he and his family moved to Johannesburg, from where he covered the Angolan civil war as a freelancer for Reuters. He later joined Media24 magazines and worked for Drum Magazine.

Liebenberg’s exhibitions include Rise and Fall of Apartheid at ICP, New York, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Pac, Milan, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, Namibia at the first African Photography Encounters in Bamako, Framing Fashion at the Brighton Museum, Brighton