Ivor Markman

Ivor Markman (1949-) is a freelance photographer, socio-cultural historian and writer in Port Elizabeth.

Biography

Ivor was born in Port Elizabeth and attended both the Grey Junior and Grey High Schools. He did art for matric and developed an absolute passion for history thanks to Alex Kiddie his history of art teacher.

Did his 9-months compulsory military training in Voortrekkerhoogte in 1969 and hated every moment of it!

He completed his Certificate in Graphic Design at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 1970 – 1972 and loved it.

In 1973 he was a member of the first group of people to be trained for the startup of SABC TV. Not what he was looking for in life so he moved on.

He worked as a press photographer at the Cape Times 1981 – Mar 1986 before moving to the United States for 10 years. It was a great experience but he was happy to return to the land of his birth.

Upon his return, from May 1995 until his retirement in September 2011, he worked as a senior photojournalist for AVUSA, (The Herald, Weekend Post) where he worked the History / Heritage beat which he absolutely loved.

In 2011 he created Ivor Markman Journalism Services, and since then has been undertaking historical research, writing, news photography, sports photography and wildlife photography, especially birds.

Now a man of leisure, enjoying life, researching history, and doing whatever he feels like doing but working harder than ever before.

Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

In view of his cultural-historical interests he has two websites on cultural life in Port Elizabeth, one on St George's Park (http://www.stgeorgespark.nmmu.ac.za/content/contactus/) and the other on the Mannville Open-air Theatre (http://ivormarkman0.wixsite.com/mannville)

He has a third website http://ivormarkman.wixsite.com/photojournalism which contains examples of his professional photojournalism.

In 2018 he became a contributing editor to the Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance (ESAT), adding material on theatre and performance in Port Elizabeth.