Road East
It is impossible to make a life that escapes structural constraints. Examining spaces can reveal who is in power and who controls that space. This can be actual space, spaces and places, or the space in one’s mind or thoughts. Whether the space is physical or mental, “they are imbued with emotional content – and tapping into this can be an effective way of controlling people” (McDougall, 2014). Social and political order rests on an order of the imaginary; imaginary entities are perceived and credited as indisputable social reality. Foucault realized, “the present epoch will be above all an epoch of space” (Foucault 1986:22). How we interact with space is highly emotional. Foucalt realized the need and fight for literal space as populations would grow and compete for resources that cannot be provided. The theoretical thinking of Foucalt is especially relevant as we enter the period of the Anthropocene. The anthropologist, Fiona Ross, began to understand that space was not geographic but cognitive and emotional; a relationship with landscape as embodied, and one of intersubjective experience of time. Our sense of space, then, is an intimate one. It rests on rhythm and deeply ingrained practices that are emotive and emotional in pursuing ordinary activities of everyday life.
Ownership, defined as legal and contractual, reduces land space to an economy. South Africa land was originally acquired through colonial claims solidified through apartheid law (McDougall, 2014). Low socio economic areas created during apartheid have separated people into zones where these borders become difficult to get out of. Actual land and house prices are affected by ideology, poor governance, poor educational institutes, zip codes, crime (protection money), racketeering, communal infrastructure, travel costs and factors that place humans born in these areas at an economic disadvantage from the start (Ross, 2010: 66). Moreover, the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy has brought about a range of new discriminatory practices and victims. In these spaces of financial survival the ‘foreigner’ is seen as a threat; the ‘Foreigner’ stands at a site where identity, racism and violent practice are reproduced.
To compound this a barrier of economic separation with little hope of inclusion exists in people’s minds. When the actual and the imaginative combine they can become a formidable metaphoric wall. The border exists in concrete reality, exists in policy, exists in actual land spaces, and most importantly exists in the human imagination. Social order rests on an order of the imaginary. Our minds have been shaped through our cultures and ideologies to accept these actual and mental partitions as an indisputable social reality. The future will be about reclaiming spaces in the mind to break free from the mindset of contemporary structural constraints affected by past political imaginaries of segregation and barriers.
Standard Bank, 2015 – 2024
Concept/Story: A building in the business district outside near to Kariega. The building in front caught the afternoon light and reflected onto this mirrored building causing diagonal vectors inside the structured architecture. The afternoon light created a deeper saturation in the reflections than in the actual building. The shot was taken on the weekend so no cars were parked in the area. 4×5 inch color negative.
Stadium Suburb, East P.E. 2015 – 2024 Road East attempts to visually communicate the complex relationship of socio economic borders in portraits and landscapes taken over a decade as I traveled and meandered from Cape Town to East London. The formulaic portraits are situated, disciplined and intentionally photographed on the street. The subjects are separated with a white background in order for the viewer to focus on the embodiment of dress and the faces of each subject. The landscapes are portraits of mostly urban and some rural spaces. The edit creates a different story in the viewer’s mind depending on the dialectical relationship of the image sequence. The images are taken on 4×5 inch color negative and 6×7 cm B&W film.
Concept/Story of Image: The gentleman that I photographed on this day approached me in Port Elizabeth outside the stadium for a job. I had set up an outdoor studio in the shadow side of the huge building. In his hand was a carefully written out CV in pen with which he approached people. He held onto the CV the entire time glancing at his written document of validation. Before I photographed him I read his CV and he made sure that I was given a copy in case I returned to PE. The photograph signifies elements that testify to his despondency of his current concrete reality of unemployment, but also elements of hope in his embodiment of dress. In his carefully prepared laundered shirt and tie he walked the stadium suburbs everyday in search of opportunity. We talked for a long time and in his eyes I felt that he was trapped in a socio economic situation that he could not climb out of. We both imagined spaces he has not managed to reach yet.
Port, P.E.
This 21 year old man was starting in the fishing industry in Port Elizabeth. He could not find work as he was in between ships which depended on fish migration. The portrait was taken under the bridge near the taxi terminal. I taped white paper to a fence and shot the portrait with a 4×5 on black and white film. Melting for You was written on the front of his hoodie. He was a ‘foreigner’ and he had crossed under BeitBridge when he was 17. When hired his money was sent home to Zimbabwe to support his parents. We discussed where he lived which was a Zimbabwean neighborhood in the PE township created as an enclave of self protected space. This was much like the area called Harare in Khayelitsha, CT. The ‘foreigner’, a person who crosses a South African border legally or illegally (Harris, 2002: 169¬184), has become emergent in national discourse. In the current situation of socio economic survival the ‘foreigner’ is seen as someone who takes jobs away from the local population. Borderlands, Anzaldúa (1987) tells us, are present whenever different races occupy the same geographical space, whenever two or more cultures edge each other out. This fight for actual space has created an imagined ideological construct of the ‘foreigner’, myths allowing for a situation in which racism and violent practice can be produced and rationalized.
During the portrait he locked onto the camera lens and did not flinch, his stare was one of defiance and fear at the same time. He was beyond the “the bounds of a police state, and he had arrived into a democracy of economic promise” (Nuttall, 2005: 221). However, the suffering, cost and toll he endured in this new land was never discussed.
Downtown, P.E.
Landscape of downtown PE in the late afternoon winter light. The side lighting causes diagonal reflections on the SA immigration building across left. The central pavement line takes the viewer downtown into the floating cement onramps of the various connecting highways. There is a central symbol of a man crossing on a yellow pole with three pedestrians (in diminishing sizes) crossing in the strip of back light. The buildings are from the 1970’s and 80’s and the choice of materials and colors signal this architectural period. The taxi rank on the left is the main point of entry from the various townships. A taxi is about to leave pulling out from the curb as a green plastic bag flies above it from left to right. The bag seemed like a bird in flight and reminded me of the film American Beauty. This area has become rundown as city center investment has dissipated into more affluent coastal areas and suburbs. Taken on 4×5 inch color negative.
Humansdorp.
This portrait was in Humansdorp of a man who was partially sighted. He had a young man to accompany him. It was pension day and he was there to get his money. Afterward the Post office, they would buy much needed staple supplies for the family. His dress was formal and reminded me of my Grandparents getting dressed for town; their concern of how they would appear in front of others in the city space. As a subject he simply did not move at any time as if he was practiced in the art of patience and waiting. On the 4×5 inch camera the photographer shoots without looking through a viewfinder but through a ground glass. When this glass plate is covered by the film holder the photographer cannot see the image. The only way to shoot the “decisive moment” with a field camera is to work out the focal length and distance between subject and camera, have a dark slide loaded and basically to imagine the right moment by gazing over the top of the camera. Moreover, the subject is confused by the 4×5 camera as the photographer spends a lot of time adjusting, loading film and measuring light.
Bloemfontein.
This is an image outside of a hairdressing shop in Bloemfontein that has been vandalized. On the window it states that the owners have left due to the crime in the area. The vandalism took place when the premises were left unrented. In the reflection of the shop windows there is a foreshadowing of dark clouds as the afternoon rain storm arrives.
Ficksburg, Rustler’s Valley.
This bed in Ficksburg was set up in a room months after a fire swept through a farm. The walls are still gray from the heat and soot. The pillow has the impression or trace of the person who slept there. The bed seems as if it has been left quickly; the creases of the discarded gray blanket lead into the creases of the white sheet taking the eye to the pillow. The painted symbol on the wall is the Hindu religious representation of the sound Om and there are two Egyptian figures on papyrus to the right of the bed. The blanket is gray with stripes. The ancient graphic writing symbols on the wall stand in contrast to the simple bedding leaving the viewer to imagine who slept there.
Lady Smith.
Lady Smith is a portrait taken outside a hotel in Ladysmith of a woman who was waiting for a business conference to end. We talked about the cost of living and discussed the town. I remember feeling a stoic and powerful presence in camera that I did not see before when I met her. A combination of vulnerability and defiance made me understand the structuring influences on the body and the way in which bodies acquire meaning in particular contexts. This year when I began to edit her portrait the details of her dress and face allowed me to imagine her life at that particular time. The embodied experience of her use of dress was a means by which she orientated and claimed her space in a small town (Entwistle, 2000: 343).
Coffee’s Bay.
The figurines of angels, dogs and fruit were taken in a market stall in Coffee Bay. The careful set up, color palette and arrangement of the statues intrigued me as no other goods were for sale. The statues came from China and the owner said that he created the scene so that customers could visualize them in their home. Behind the statues are various political and government advertisements in the form of posters and chalk writing.
Alexandra.
This large sack of recycled plastics awaited on the top of a rubbish mound for collection. The discarded white plastic object on the right bottom of the image throws the balance of the entire landscape off. The hill of sacks in the distance gives a sense of linear perspective in their overlapping planes. An entire section of society from Alexandra Township relies on the dump site creating an economy in a space of discarded material. The mound was to become residential in ten years and overlooked the township and highway east to Durban.
Langa.
A student from Langa taken in the school halls with permission from the Headmaster. Negative not flipped so slogans are back to front. He was very conscious of others watching and wanted to keep his hoodie and Klipdrift earphones on. The school was in Langa which is one of the closest locations to Cape Town. It is on the N2 airport road that the first impression of socio economic borders can be seen. The differences of wealth and land from the airport to Kayalisha, Langa and into the city are astonishingly apparent as each section is carefully zoned. In twenty minutes one can travel from non permanent constructed housing, into government housing, lower middle class zones, the middle class suburbs leading into the city center, and finally into multi million dollar homes with zip codes proving their worth. A ten minute separation of neighborhoods determined his future.
Sunday’s River.
Two sheep heads in an abattoir near Sunday’s River. The heads were in a bin and the way they fell into place reminded me of a macabre sense of affection. I was reminded of an image taken by Joel Peter Witkin. The entire experience of this space was traumatizing in the numbers of different animals being slaughtered. This bin of ‘Smilies’ (sheep heads) was destined to the township for consumption. Animals were separated into portions that are destined to different economic zones depending on the cost of each animal part. Sunday’s River was also a barrier and boundary marker of territorial claim during colonization.
East London.
Portrait of a young vendor with his Mother in East London. I set up the white background near their space of business. The portrait was done on FP4 and I developed the film for a long time with extended water barths to draw in the shadow areas. The portrait was taken in direct sun with a flare from a reflective window. We shot in between potential customers. The clay, as UV protection, intentionally covered the wrong areas of the face. The application of clay was unique, distinguishing him from other vendors. The creation of a unique ‘character’ liberated him from the normal constraints of street entrepreneurship and attracted customers.
Khayelitsha.
Khayelitsha taken from a hill that is now occupied. I had never seen Cape Town from this angle as I considered that the population of registered citizens was at two million in this zone alone. One can see the back of Table Mountain in the distance.