South African photographer Alfred (Alf) Kumalo, who chronicled his country’s transformation from apartheid to democracy, died Sunday in Johannesburg at the age of 82, local media reported.

Born in 1930 in the Alexandra township in Johannesburg, Kumalo became a photojournalist at the age of 21.

During his career, he covered the span of the apartheid era, including Nelson Mandela’s wedding to Winnie in 1957, the Soweto uprising in 1976, the state of emergency in the 1980s, as well as Mandela’s presidency from 1994.

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“His drive to capture the moment allowed him the privilege of witnessing and recording extraordinary moments despite numerous bouts of detention, arrests and official harassment” under apartheid, the South African presidency said.

Kumalo never really went into retirement, and had continued to teach at a photography school in Soweto until his death.