Zubeida Vallie was born in 1963 in Newlands, Cape Town from which she and her family were forcibly removed under the Group Areas Act.

She is a graduate of the Peninsula Technikon. Between 1985 and 1989, she freelanced for, among others, the international news agencies Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse and many publications in South Africa and around the world. Vallie was also one of the founding members of the Afrapix collective which formed in 1982. Her extensive photographic collections indicate an awareness of the role that women played in the anti-apartheid struggle as well as turning points in the political landscape. Her work has been widely exhibited and published in both documentary films and books.

For the last 28 years, Vallie has lectured in photography at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Works featured in publications: Beyond the Barricades, 1989

Further reading list

MARTYRS, SAINTS & SELL-OUTS The photographs of Benny Gool, Adil Bradlow & Zubeida Vallie - http://martyrs-saints-sellouts.ccaphotography.org/home/zubeida_vallie/

Behind The Lens - Liz Fish’s "Behind The Lens" focuses on 8 South African photographers – Benny Gool, Gille de Vlieg, Guy Tillim, Paul Weinberg, Peter Magubane, Rashid Lombard, Tony Weaver, and Zubeida Vallie - who saw themselves as activists first and photojournalists second, during the Struggle in the 1980s. - https://shadowandact.com/encounters-africas-top-documentary-festival-is-back-in-june-for-its-16th-edition/

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