Tracey Derrick

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.