Bobson Sukhedo Mohanlall
South African, 1928 - 2003
Person TypeIndividual
Moorish / North African, NA
BiographyBobson Studio was founded by Bobson Sukhdeo Mohanlall (1928 – 2003) in Durban, South Africa, in 1961. The studio catered mainly to a Zulu clientele, who posed in their own beadwork and costumes for formal portraits that were also made into postcards, which could be sent to distant relatives and friends. Bobson used two cameras during this time, a Yashica Matt 120mm and a Rolliflex 120mm. The studio became the city’s most famous portrait studio, and attracted clients countrywide. Many of the clients belonged to the Ndwedwe people, a subgroup of the Zulu who live in the region known as Valley of a Thousand Hills, between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the major cities of the KwaZulu-Natal province. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Bobson Studio began to offer color portraits, which best captured the vivid dress of the clients. – Axis Gallery