Ruphin Coudyzer started his photographic endeavours in the early 70's by compiling a documentary on Kliptown, a then coloured township in Soweto.                                                                                                            An exhibition of this material was held at The Photographer's Gallery in London in 1975.                                 Thirty years later, some of this work found it's way to Kliptown's Community Centre and is now permanently displayed there.

At the same time, Coudyzer started an ongoing collection of documentary street photography which he simply called "Focus On People" and which was conducted not only in the streets of Johannesburg, but also during various visits to his home country Belgium and in London, Paris, Lesotho and Mozambique. 

Ruphin joined The Star Newspaper in 1977 as a general news photographer, a position he held for  two years, both years winning the Star News Picture of the Year Award with some of his social and political documentary (see the first two photographs displayed in this section - PW Botha at Sasolburg in November 1978 and Mr. Chitsongo, a Mozambican living in SA for over 50 years, being evicted out of the country in Aug 1979).