The 'modest and mature' phase

See below

Warwick Triangle

For the most part of my career as a photographer I have been making work in the vicinity of Warwick Street/Grey Street in Durban.

These 3 shots were made about 6 years ago and fall between the small format phase and a more 'modest and mature' large-format phase. They were made with a Mamiya 7 range-finder.

Robben Island

This room is where the Apartheid Police forged letters to prisoners, amongst other things. The Mother Fuckers.

Apparently a prisoner received a letter from his wife to say that she was longer in love with him, but in love with another man, and had left the struggle. The letter was penned in writing forged in order to resemble that of the man's wife.

The scan is a rough one.

South Korea

I have been invited to return to SK for a 3 months on the strength of the proposal which I list here. The object is to produce a book on a curious village called 'Pension Town'.

PT is a themed American village with Cape Cod esque wooden houses, a FAMILY MART, and a baseball net. Rich SKs(it's mondo expensive to hire a complex for the weekend) come for weekends and seem to emulate American activities by day, and get drunk at night.

This shot of a car under a tarp by R. Frank is the point of departure for explaining the theoretical underpinnings of the work. I found a similarly veiled vehicle(probably a Hyundai) at PT.

To be, or not to be

This is a picture of me at the Milnerton Market. I am wondering whether I should include it it the book. I am not recognisable, and I am tilting my Stetsonius in a gesture of politeness(the wind actually). It appears if I am acknowledging a greater force, which I am.

Baldessari

In his work called 'Throwing 4 Balls in the Air to Get a Square' the artist tries to do as the title suggests. In my estimation he throws tomatoes at the documentary project by implying that formalism and the modernist documentary project are redundant.

A central image in my N1 project has been a this shot which refers to his failed attempt to get a square. The balls to right of frame particularly.

The N1 project never really shows the Road, it exists by implication. And Africa is beset with easy, centralised images of itself.

SchMIFA

Here is a shot of FIFA's Green Point Stadium in the early stages of its development.

These guys are fascists and prevent the sale of anything which depicts their structures. So I guess the question might be: at which point does a construction site begin to resemble the intended object, and at which point do the attendant copyright questions around its visage begin to take effect?

Murder and arrogance

This is Blitz. He was a general in the notorious gangs of Pollsmoor prison. He was killed shortly after he left the safe confines of the jail in which he was a king pin.

We got along pretty well. He said to me that he could have me killed very easily. I knew this. I asked him not to have me killed, using the prefix 'please' and trying not to emphasise my concern. It worked.

I can't remember exactly why he was inside. He had killed a couple of people. I think he said on a Sunday, because they were making a noise. If my memory serves me correctly he said six.

The film was supplied to me by my employers. It had been damaged by Xrays. I am retouching it now.

PS. The singular portrait was made in his cell on a 4 by 5 inch camera with almost no light, assistant or guard. Behind me are a range of fairly nasty inmates trying to steal my equipment. It was fucking hot-that's why Blitz has his crucifix showing.



A long account of the prison gang system was written by Jonny Steinberg with whom I worked in Pollsmoor. It is called The Number.