Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Next in the South African photo series ... Church courtyard. Kabokwenki township, South Africa, 2002. In the townships, there are bars and there are churches -- there's very little middle ground. I made this image toward the beginning of my time in South Africa. I was staying with one of my fixers, Alex, in his home about an hour from Nelspruit, Mpumalanga Province, a steamy lowland area near Mozambique. His church -- like most down there -- was an evangelical offshoot of the Christian mainstem, and the service was entirely in Swazi.
Sometimes, it can feel like there's nothing in this world that hasn't been photographed, and nobody who isn't used to photographers roaming their streets, but the people at Alex's church greeted me with a sort of quizzical but friendly amusement. I got up in front of the congregation and introduced myself, and tried (unsuccessfully) to explain my reasons for photographing the service, which mostly had to do with depicting everyday South African life. It didn't make much sense to anybody, evidently, because Alex soon took over the presentation. Speaking in Swazi, he asked everyone to, more or less, "humor the foreigner." Which they did. (You can find other, previously published photos here.)
(Note: original post expanded.)
Sometimes, it can feel like there's nothing in this world that hasn't been photographed, and nobody who isn't used to photographers roaming their streets, but the people at Alex's church greeted me with a sort of quizzical but friendly amusement. I got up in front of the congregation and introduced myself, and tried (unsuccessfully) to explain my reasons for photographing the service, which mostly had to do with depicting everyday South African life. It didn't make much sense to anybody, evidently, because Alex soon took over the presentation. Speaking in Swazi, he asked everyone to, more or less, "humor the foreigner." Which they did. (You can find other, previously published photos here.)
(Note: original post expanded.)
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
What the Hell Happened to Detroit? As always, that's the question when you're talking about my hometown, the poster city for American urban decay. Via Detroitblog, I see that there's a new documentary on Detroit making the rounds now, put together by European professors at U of M. As you might expect, the filmmakers spend much of the movie touring the ghost lands of the city.
As the film makes its way to the present, the filmmakers inject themselves as they take Woiquart on a driving tour of the city. They let him make observations -- interjected with academic theory -- as he scrutinized the city block by block.
When they reach the central business district, the filmmakers must point out to Woiquart that he is actually downtown. He can't believe it.
"Right here? Downtown?" he asks. "C'mon! Clean it up!"
The film will probably make some people angry -- understandably so, given the way most outsiders look down on Detroit. I'm a bit skeptical myself, but I haven't seen it yet so I can't say. (The proprietor of Detroitblog, for instance, notes that the film doesn't once mention Coleman Young -- the mayor who presided over the city's fall -- which doesn't make any sense at all.) With luck, it'll make it out to the west coast sometime soon and I can see for myself.When they reach the central business district, the filmmakers must point out to Woiquart that he is actually downtown. He can't believe it.
"Right here? Downtown?" he asks. "C'mon! Clean it up!"
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
First in an occasional series ... It probably happens to every photographer: Sometimes while combing through old negatives, searching for something else, you come upon photos that you ignored the first time around. Happened to me last week, looking for a few SA photos for requests. They seem worth posting, even if I never do anything else with them. So here's the first, shot in a tenement in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, in 2002.
