Suffering of War - A photographic portrayal of the suffering in the Anglo-Boer War emphasising the universal elements of all wars #1014861

Suffering of War is a poignant visual chronicle that reinterprets the British humanitarian Emily Hobhouse's historical accounts through a powerful contemporary lens, aiming to highlight the universal tragedy inherent in all armed conflicts. Compiled and edited by photographer Paul Alberts, the book is distinguished by its inclusion of unique and rarely seen photographs, meticulously selected from thousands of archival images, that provide a raw, visceral context to the letters and reports of women and children in British black and white concentration camps. These unsettling and often haunting portraits transcend the specific historical confines of the Anglo-Boer War, using the "proven power of the photograph" to illustrate a century of global warfare and the enduring, collective agony of non-combatants. By presenting these scarce visual records in a high-quality, limited-edition format, the work serves as both a profound tribute to South African heroines and a sobering meditation on the shared human cost of violence.
This publication and the photos in the publication were exhibited in Moscow, Russia, in 2004. This is a sought-after publication as it is no longer in print (the standard print). This is a special leather-bound edition as indicated above.
Most people know Paul Alberts as a portraitist and social documentarian. Fewer know that he spent years in a studio in the Free State, recovering what time was erasing. In the early 2000s, Paul approached the War Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein with a proposal. The museum held thousands of photographs from the Anglo-Boer War, many never publicly seen, deteriorating in storage. Paul saw what they were and understood what needed to be done. He spent countless hours digitally restoring the prints, enlarging some to two metres, bringing faces and landscapes back from the edge of disappearance. Frik Jacobs, then director of the War Museum, recalled in a 2011 Mail and Guardian obituary watching Paul work in his studio on a photograph of a small girl in a concentration camp, on the point of dying. Paul was working on the image of her toe. There were tears running down his face. It was more than a job. It was a calling. The resulting exhibition, 'Suffering of War', opened at Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein in 2003. In June 2004, it travelled to Moscow, where it was hosted at the All-Russian Decorative, Applied and Folk Art Museum, sponsored by De Beers, in celebration of ten years of South African democracy. Paul was interviewed by Russian television in front of his own enlarged prints. The exhibition then toured all major South African centres, including the Castle in Cape Town, and continued across Europe, Africa and the Far East. The accompanying book, co-authored with Louis Changuion and Frik Jacobs and published by Kraal Publishers in 2003, featured many previously unpublished photographs. That same year, Paul presented a copy to President Thabo Mbeki. Twenty-seven thousand people died in the Anglo-Boer War concentration camps. Paul Alberts made sure their faces would not be forgotten.