1. Photography in South African Townships
Holly Cavanaugh
Anthropology 390 // 09 December 2012
Abstract
Community within post-apartheid South African townships is alive and vibrant.
Townships are informal settlements, that were formed before and during the apartheid
era, as areas of residence for non-white South Africans. Post-apartheid, non-whites
were allowed to move out of the townships; however, due to finances, deep roots and
community ties, many people still live in townships. Inside and outside of townships,
there are budding art communities and artists come from around the country and other
parts of the world to create art in townships. I have analyzed much of this art, and will
specifically be discussing the role of photography and how it has become an important
medium in representing community in South African townships.
2. Introduction to Research on Community in South African Townships
As an anthropologist and an artist, the South African art-scape interests me in
many ways. Art in South Africa has many unique aspects, many of which are inspired by
communities within the country. It is necessary to understand that a large factor in what
creates community in South Africa is that within the last century, South Africa has gone
through much turmoil. For nearly fifty years, apartheid greatly affected the lives of all
South Africans, most notably it had a great negative effect on black and coloured South
Africans. Racial discrimination and segregation led to a rift in the country that can still be
seen today.
Racial zoning and the creation of shantytowns, or townships, designated areas in
which people of certain colors were meant to reside. This created forced communities,
that have in turn led to the blossoming of close knit relationships within townships.
Although, western media enjoys to portray townships in South Africa to be full of
violence and unrest, there are other unsung stories yearning to be told.
The concept and dynamics of ʻcommunityʼ is a popular topic within anthropology,
and is discussed frequently in ehtnographies and other various research projects. I have
personally conducted research on community bonding and formation. Because of my
interest in this concept of ʻcommunityʼ, I wanted to take a deeper look into how
community is portrayed within South African townships, particularly through the art of
photography.
This project was initially undertaken within a group setting, which pertained to
five others along with myself. After deciding on our topic of ʻcommunity in townships,ʼ we
each chose a township to specifically research. I, along with another member, chose to
3. research Alexandra, which is in Johannesburg; however, as I conducted research on my
own, I found to the use of photography throughout many South African townships to be
more fruitful, rather than trying to achieve a generalized concept of just Alexandra.
Community in Townships
South African townships are full of different types of community; from the idea of
the South African Township community as a whole, to smaller sub-communities within
specific townships, like Alexandra, communal bonds are continuously being created and
maintained. These concepts of community are represented through many artistic
outlets, including all mediums of ʻfine artʼ and other artistic representations that are
relatively unique to South Africa. For the purposes of this paper, I will be discussing one
medium of art within and of townships, but it is necessary to acknowledge there is a
plethora of other artistic expressions being utilized within townships.
Photography as a Fine Art
“Photography has for me been the means for which I have come to deal with being a
South African.” -David Goldblatt at the SFMOMA, November 2012.
Photography is one of the most dynamic mediums of art and has an interesting
history in South Africa because during the fifty years of apartheid it was used as a way
to document the ideal versus the reality of what was occurring around the country. In
this discussion of South African photography I am going to address four artists, all of
whom come from different walks of life and have greatly contributed to the South African
4. art-scape, as well as to the sense of community felt within the country and her
townships.
Simon Weller
Simon Weller grew up in England and remembers observing apartheid in the
1980s through its demise in the 1990s via television and newspapers. He first visited a
South African township in 2009, and was pleasantly surprised by the seemingly random
multitudes of barber shops and salons throughout said township. When going through
other townships, he noticed they too had many thriving barber shops and salons, and
from these observations, he began formulating a photo series showcasing the beauty
and communal aspects of these businesses.
In his essay, South African Township Barbershops & Salons, Weller depicts nine
townships and through background, personal experiences, and interviews tells their
stories. I focused most on the chapter about Alexandra, the township in particular that
Weller was warned by many not to visit. Even with negativity, Weller ventured into Alex,
which he happened to visit on a Sunday, the day of the week that many families were
out and about after attending church. In South African Barbershops and Salons, he
discusses how the barbershops of Alex (along with other featured townships) “serve as
places where the community can escape.” These are the places in Alex where people
can relax and ʻhang outʼ with each other in a casual and comfortable manner.
Wellerʼs photographs of barbershops and salons in Alex feature some of the
outer art work of the shops, including, but not limited to: their shop name, a list of
services, and some sort of painting on the front that is meant to entice a customer. In
5. much of Wellerʼs work, he shows the list of services salons and barbershops offer,
which helps the outside viewer gain a greater understanding of popular styles, and the
amount of services an establishment offers. He also has photographs of the insides of
some shops, many of which directly show the social interactions taking place. With
many of these shots, the viewer is able to visibly see the communal bonds formed in
these establishments, thus allowing closer connections between viewer and subject to
form.
An innovative way Wellerʼs
photographs of South African townships
have been crossing the global art-scape, is
by the creation of skateboards that have
various photographs on them from the
Barbershop & Salons series. Collaborating
with the Familia Skateboards, a south
African skateboard company that promotes
itself as ʻpeppered with a little antagonism, dysfunction, humor, and activism,ʼ Weller is
showcasing the township culture he captured through his images via skating.
Graeme Williams
Graeme Williams began his photography career as a photo journalist. He was
commissioned to record violence and death occurring in townships during and after
apartheid, but felt he was living a double life by shooting photos of violence in the
morning and going home to the ʻwhiteʼ suburbs in the afternoon. He decided to stop
6. documenting, and now operates at a quieter level. His essay, The Edge of Town, is
aiming to tie a ʻfragmented story of lifeʼ lived at the edge of South African town. He
covers nearly 100 towns, including Alex. He is bringing to life images of South Africa
that the non-South African viewer normally doesnʼt see, with narrative elements to make
the viewer contemplate life lived, at the edge of town.
"Instead of trying to construct a narrative about life in the country as a whole, I
concentrated on fragments of life at the literal and figurative edges of town...
made up of fragments that I have collected as I moved within the spaces
occupied by South Africaʼs marginalized communities" -Williams on the
description of The Edge of Town
While these photos donʼt follow a real ʻpattern,ʼ they all are depicting snapshots
of life in South Africa. Working with the literal and the figurative, Williams is playing the
line between positive and negative aspects in the lives of marginalized South Africans.
While his photos donʼt give an overly ʻhappyʼ feeling, they donʼt give a ʻsadʼ feeling
either; They exist for themselves, and are left to the viewer to interpret how the subjects
in the photos are feeling and seeing the raw beauty of life lived in townships.
Zwelethu Mthethwa
Zwelethu Mthethwa received an extensive fine arts education from Michaelis
School of Fine Art, and has helped with various community projects, like Childrenʼs
Project for Community Arts. Zwelethu Mthethwa was an early proponent of color
photography, a medium not readily embraced by South African photographers, he was
breaking away from the black and white ʻdocumentary photographerʼ box that had been
7. the norm in South Africa during apartheid. In his series, Inner Views (which makes up
one third of his exhibition, Interiors), one could argue that Mthethwaʼs photos represent
South African identities, but I would contest that they also show a great deal about the
communities within townships.
The portraits in Inner Views show people in their homes, all of whom were in
collaboration with Mthethwa during the shoot. He would ask them to dress how they
wanted, where they wanted to be in the photo and he let them choose their expression
and after printing he sends them a print of their photograph. By collaborating so
intimately with his subjects, this makes Mthethwaʼs work is much more successful than
if he had posed his subjects himself. It also brings deeper meanings into the identities of
the communities he is capturing. An insightful quote on Mthethwaʼs work, is from Ariella
Budick:
“His goals are curiously old-fashioned: he wants to seize his subjectsʼ humanity
and broadcast it into the world. Heʼs not interested in arousing compassion or
sparking political action, but rather in glorifying the patchwork beauty his
marginalized subjects build amid their poverty.” -Budick
Another interesting aspect of Inner Views, is the setting around the subjects.
Many of the interior spaces look very similar, which creates a sense of communal
solidarity. The particular similarity within the settings is the wallpaper consisting of
colorful paper advertisements, magazine covers, and food labels on the walls of each
subjectʼs living space. The setting almost becomes the subject, since the viewerʼs eye is
taken around so many parts of the photograph; however, the individual remains the
8. eyeʼs focus. The subjectʼs expression and body language really communicates who
they are and the emotions they want to express.
This series is telling a narrative of Mbekweni (the location of the photographs)
and the residents who live there. Sue Williamson discusses in South African Art Now
that the images of Mbekweni are part of a healing process to the residents (healing from
the long years of apartheid). Inner Views is reminiscent of American photographer,
Shelby Lee Adamsʼs numerous narrative seriesʼ about rural Appalachian Mountain
residents. Both these men capture a culture in its purest and raw state, one which tells a
narrative of unsung communities, and at the same time lifting the spirits of the
individuals themselves. in showcasing who they are.
David Goldblatt
Since the 1960s, David Goldblatt has devoted all of his time strictly to
photography. For over 50 years, he has exhibited countless series, and was the first
South African to have a solo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He
captured apartheid in photographs and continues to photograph in the post-apartheid
era. He mainly works in black and white, but has recently been experimenting with
color photography. One notable achievement he mentions in his artist statement is that
he aided in the founding of the Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg in
1989. This program aims to teach young people photographic skills and how to become
visually literate. This kind of program helps spread art, and create more players in the
South African art-scape.
9. Goldblatt has documented the changes of South Africa, as a whole, during and
post-apartheid. Much of his work tells stories, and he helps these stories come even
more to life with long description in the titles of his photographs. The photo that
immediatly stood out to me was titled: “Victorian Cobokana, housekeeper, with her son
Sifiso and daughter Onica, Johannesburg, June 1999. Victoria died of AIDS 13
December 1999, Sifiso died of AIDS 12 January 2000, Onica is infected with AIDS and
is not expected to live.” (Williamson, 144) This lengthy description allows the viewer to
have a more emotional experience with the photograph, more intense than they would
have without the description. The photograph itself is of Victoria sitting in a chair holding
her daughter, and her son standing next to them. Even though the photograph has a
somber feeling to it, the title evokes a greater connection between the viewer, Goldblatt,
and the subject.
Goldblatt shoots seemingly normal daily situations. He is shooting the realities of
communities and their members within South Africa, particularly those who struggle in
the post-apartheid era. Now he has branched out and has began shooting those
affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is the primary means of killing multitudes of
South Africans. Through his work Goldblatt is telling the emotional narrative of South
Africa, and he is an important figure to follow. He not only photographs the lives of
township residents and marginalized South Africans, but has other work based on the
lives of white South Africans. The dichotomy between the lives of white and black South
Africans is one that has been under stress since before the years of apartheid. Goldblatt
aims to show all walks of life in South Africa, many of which may have gone unseen
without his help.
10. To close my discussion photography as a fine art, all these artists tie together in
telling pieces of various narratives and the great dynamics within South African
townships. From the safe places communities go to strengthen relationships, to
narratives of the people themselves in their places of residence, which are unique but
riddled with patterns. Photography is and will continue to be an important art in South
Africa, and over time more township residents will pick up cameras and capture more
important moments in time.
Photography from within Townships
I See a Different You
I was fortunate enough to come upon a photography blog called “I See A
Different You.” This blog is run by three young men of Soweto (a township of
Johannesburg): Justice Mukheli, Innocent Mukheli, and Vuyo Mpantsha; Each wanting
to tell the world a different story of Soweto, and of South Africa. Growing up, they
noticed the media was showcasing all the negatives about life in Soweto, but not of the
positives that they had experienced during childhood. Rather than having outsiders
come and tell them how life is being lived, they made it their mission to tell their story of
growing up and living in South Africaʼs most famous township, Soweto.
It was only recently that one member of the trio, Justice Mukheli, even picked up
a camera. “I never thought of photography as an art as I didnʼt think the craft behind it
was worthy of being art;” (Jordan, 1) However, after taking some photographs while on
a trip to Cape Town, Mukheli began to see the value of photography artistically. By
11. attempting to make everything beautiful and paying attention to design, he started
showcasing the beauty of his childhood home, Soweto.
In oder to tell their story of Soweto, they capture uplifting and beautiful moments
through photography. They are part of a new generation in South Africa, one that is
growing up believing in themselves and believing in their great potential. They are trying
to document and recreate pieces of their lives that were important in growing up in
Soweto. “They say people connect with the photographs because they identify with
them, the photos say: ʻThatʼs where I am from.ʼ” (Taitz, 1) Rather than experiencing life
alone, they want to share with the world their love for their home and the community
that means so much to them.
Umuzi Photo Club
The Umuzi Photo Club is an organization in South Africa that helps develop
photography skills among youth in townships. Many of the photography projects these
young people conduct are activism based issues that South African youth face
everyday. Another resource the Club provides is practical opportunities for young
photographers, such as helping them learn how to earn an income with photography
and ultimately become independent professionals. In 2011, Nikon South Africa donated
equipment to the Club to help get more youth involved with photography. The first
camera set went to a 24 year old Alexandra resident, who may not be in the target
group of high school students, but exhibited motivation to become a professional
photographer. Nikon has partnered with the Club by selling South African crafts, such as
bracelets, in order to help fund more opportunities within the the Club.
12. Each week a new young artist is introduced on the Umuzi Photo Club blog, in
order to showcase some of the young people who are involved in this organization.
Their blog is a really great source for others around the world to get informed about
what is going on in South African youth. The Club also has visiting photo journalists and
artists guest lecture to the youth participants in order to further inspire. The Umuzi
Photo Club is a great way for township youth to advance their photographic conceptual
and technical skills, and gain the potential to become first rate photographers.
Conclusion
As discussed in this paper, photography has been and continues to play an
important role in displaying community within South Africaʼs townships. Not only are
photographers representing the communities of South African townships through their
images through the world-wide art-scape, young township residents are given
opportunities to learn about photography and potentially become photographers
themselves. By showcasing the beauty of townships, and their residents, the world will
be able to learn the beautiful stories of barbershops that serve as social centers; of life
lived at the edges of town; of personal identities riddled with communal patterns; or of
three young bloggers, each wanting to share with the world their charming and playful
lives. South African photography will continue to travel the global art-scape, and affect
the lives of generations to come.
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Image Source
Skateboards:
http://boldandnoble.com/blog/2011/11/south-african-township-barbershops-salons/
familiasw/