His work is held in the collections of the UK Arts Council, National Portrait Gallery, Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
[4] He moved to South Africa to rejoin his family in 1950 and, the following year, found employment on Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist.
[2][5][6][7] Schadeberg became the senior figure of the group[1][8] and a teacher and mentor to some of the most creative South African photographers of his time, including Bob Gosani, Ernest Cole, and later Peter Magubane.
[12] Some of the famous people he photographed include Nelson Mandela,[13] Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Trevor Huddleston, and Govan Mbeki.
[4] When Drum wanted the singer Dolly Rathebe to be the cover girl for one of their issues, Schadeberg took her to a Johannesburg mine dump and photographed her in a bikini.