Almost every black household has pictures of family members happily smiling for the camera, with a beautiful studio background hiding their daily struggle. A collection of these portraits is on display until September at The Walther Collection Project in New York, a reminder of where we come from as a nation.The photographs were taken between 1972 and 1984 by SJ "Kitty" Moodley, at Kitty's Studio in Pietermaritzburg.QUEEN BEAD: [Woman wearing Zulu beadwork], circa 1982Curator Steven Dubin says the photographs "offer an evocative and refreshing view of apartheid-era South African society and expand the history of vernacular studio portraiture in Africa.NOW AND THEN: [Two women, one wearing traditional attire], 1981A vibrant community institution and anti-apartheid hub, Kitty's Studio provided a safe space for local clients to collaborate with their photographer in the construction of portraits that often overturned established conventions.BLACK ORCHID: [Woman with floral decoration], 1976As the struggle continued outside and the apartheid government enacted laws to restrict the lives of black people, life continued.Dreams and aspirations were expressed in different forms and these portraits are but one of the platforms used to tell the life of a black man under apartheid.BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: [Two women wearing Western attire], 1981Many a family album tells a story of a life so controlled that many of the pictures are indoors.UNENDING GAZE: [Woman], circa 1982My grandparents have pictures of themselves at a beach; sand and picnic baskets. But this scene is inside a studio. What those pictures tell is of a life where they were never permitted to go to the beach and enjoy what God gave us all.THE APPRAISAL: [Woman], circa 1978Their passion for nature and dreams of walking hand in hand at the beach were never realised.They found comfort in a studio to be near a sea.STYLIN': [Two men with floral decoration], circa 1978Have a look at a picture of two handsome, stylishly dressed young men from the 1970s striking a relaxed, confident, even playful pose, says Dubin.MAIDEN SOUTH AFRICA: [Woman wearing traditional attire], 1976They stand cross-legged on either side of a large floral arrangement that rests upon a simply constructed wooden stand. The men gaze directly at the camera, looking sharp. But their outfits of khaki pants, caps and a plaid sport jacket tell us that these young men are in a transitional state: they are recent Xhosa initiates (amakrwala, or 'unripe fruit') and are, therefore, obliged to respect their tribal elders and honour the ancestors."PICTURE PERFECT: [Kitty's Studio], circa 1980One significant insight that emerges from these portraits, argues Dubin is that throughout the apartheid era "non-white" South Africans used photographic self-representations to challenge media depictions of them and to show how their private lives transcended narrow state-sanctioned identities. Kitty's portraits allowed his sitters to distinguish themselves not only as individuals but also as members of self-styled social groups...