T h e P h o t o g r a p h y o f
T h e P h o t o g r a p h y o f |
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South Africa is a country with a wealth of cultures, and this is what my work is about. By seeing how we differ in our lifestyles, we can recognise how much we have in common. I photograph ordinary people: refugees, sex workers, street children, displaced Himbas, farm workers and women in prison. In these portraits of their lives at work and play, they are given a voice, dignity and power. They are testimonies confirming the beauty and hope of individuals and their communities. My photographs are never taken without permission, as my work is dependent on creating a relationship with people and their situation. As little technical support as possible is used - a manual camera, no flash and no filters - to capture a raw energy in one to three frames. Cropping, I believe, destroys something of the truth and immediacy of each moment. Working mainly in black and white, I process the films and develop handprints in my darkroom. All these techniques involve human decisions as opposed to a digital process. Recently, I used a digital camera to document my journey through breast cancer. This has given me an appreciation of the immediacy of digital photography and reawakened in me the pleasure of colour intensity. I am excited to be running photographic workshops with digital as well as manual cameras.
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PUBLIC ART PROJECT THE HERMON DOMINO TOURNAMENT
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