Cars

Some guys tried to steal my car yesterday afternoon - it was parked outside the guesthouse. Not big news and I'm glad that's all that happened. There are street guards all over the suburbs and one stopped them actually taking the car.
Then some big Boer in a 4x4 chased them as they sped off in their get away car - I'm not sure what he was hoping to achieve. When the police arrived they were very unimpressed because the Boer hadn't got a registration number.

I went to the police station and the Sergeant wrote out a statement by hand which I signed. I sat while he wrote and watched the policemen walking around with guns in their belts. On the way back he told me that the police station covers 13 suburbs and has 3 police cars to do it. And there I was being driven home.

So I'm marooned at the guesthouse until a replacement car can be delivered. The group will be taking down the exhibition today.

The Big Event

The big day arrived.....

The group were very excited and we all ran around madly beforehand setting up tables, charies etc. Despite technical problems the day went very well. Less people came than I'd thought though. I asked the manager of the venue Lovelife and he said it's always like this - parents and family just never turn up to events organised by and for their children. He said he has to go knocking on doors to make adults come. But the group sang, read poetry and danced anyway. They are going to do the whole thing again on Thursday and make sure more people come.

It was a fun hectic day all the same....

The Digital Stories

While the rest of the group are planning and hanging the exhibition I'm finishing work on the digital stories.

We have eight and they're all pretty hard-hitting.
Gugu tells the story of her sister who died of AIDS - the first time she's told this story... Anna talks about getting pregnant when she was studying at college and how her family reacted to her news. Teenage pregnancy can destroy your life she says.
Jabu tells the stroy of how the jealousy of his teammates ruined his dream of becoming a professional footballer...Sylvia talks about poverty and her experience of it. Kgomotso talk about her disabled brother and his neglect and death...Vuyisile talks about his past as a criminal and how he changed his life for the better...Fikile tells the story of her abusive childhood...Bongi and Jabulile tells the story of alcohol abuse in their families.

All of these stories poured out of them.

Exhibition

Suddenly we're hanging the exhibition in Orange Farm. It's been such a long but short journey for all of us. The photos look great enlarged and the group are excited.

Digital Stories

Most of the group had never used computers before but it was amazing to see how quickly they picked it up.
In 2 1/2 days they had more or less finished their digital stories with the help of Matthews, Moshe, Mzukisi and Ayi. The digital stories combine their photos with a recorded narration. They're normally 3-5 minutes long.

I'm really excited and impressed by the group's narrative skills.

Next Stage

The 8 digital stories selected from the group are now being worked on at WomensNet on their computers there. While that's happening we're planning the event on the 2nd December when we'll showcase the exhibition and stories.

Its busy.

Hail

While the rest of the group are working on their stories in Orange Farm I've been in town trying to get stuff done. Except there was a power cut for several hours today probably because of the rain. Well not rain exactly - I got hit by hailstones when I went out earlier. Rather confusing.

Workshops

The workshops are now focusing on digital stories - we've called in some help in the form of Moshe, Matthews and Mzukisi who are photographers and filmmakers to help with the process. It's been an exciting emotional day for the group as they begin telling stories about their life and experiences.

Group Outing

It's been a busy time for the group.

Here are photos from our outing to Jo'burg earlier in the week.
We visited Museum Africa which has a great set of exhibitions particularly the history of photography. After lunch we went to WomensNet which has also done it's own digital storytelling project. Then onto the Jo'burg Art Gallery across town. With some dancing along the way.

Cameras

The police eventually returned the cameras, after much to-ing and fro-ing.

Maggie told me about it all. The policeman wanted to take her camera and she said; "If you take my camera then give me your gun."

Apparently the policeman is now a great supporter of the project and wants updates on how we are all doing. Scared of exposure obviously.

A shift

There's been a shift in some of the group. We were discussing how it had gone during last week with their photography projects - who they'd photographed, where they'd photographed, what they'd learnt - that sort of thing.

I found myself talking to some very angry young people. One of the boys said it was all different now he had his camera and photography skills. He saw his community and the issues in it differently, in the past he wouldn't question what he saw or heard. Now he does.
Both he and another girl had been photographing in shebeens and talking to the shebeen owners who were saying they didnt have a problem with selling alcohol to people who were under 18. All that matters was the money coming in. Where was the money going - to their own childrens' education.

These two were shocked and disappointed in the adults, in their attitude to money and doing anything to get it, including ruining childrens' lives.

I got a phone call last night and today - two girls have had their cameras confiscated by the police because they'd photographed a policeman beating up an innocent man in Orange Farm. The police had seen the girls with their cameras and taken them. They have to go to the station tomorrow. I explained on the phone that if it was necessary delete the photos they'd taken to get the police off their back - then they should. It may help to make the problem go away. One of the girls said 'But I can't delete those photos - what they were doing was wrong.' She'd already told the police the same thing. It was her duty to record what she'd seen and use it.

It's an exciting time.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

I had a meeting at Johannesburg Civic Theatre....COMING SOON...'Thoroughly Modern Millie'. On the poster is a blonde-bobbed girl in some 20's cabaret outfit.

What a strange place - Modern Millie rubbing shoulders with the actors in an Athol Fugard play and Jay Z.

Filling up at the petrol station today, taking advantage of lower petrol prices. The guy fills up the tank, washes the windscreen, checks the oil and water and the tyre pressure while I sit in the car. At the supermarket someone packs my shopping into a bag while I stand waiting. At the guesthouse someone cleans my room, washes my dishes while I work.

Someone used the phrase the 'culture of entitlement' that exists in South Africa. He didnt mean the situations above but how that's what exists for the average South African post-Apartheid.

We talk about the image South Africa is creating of itself for its own people. In the soaps and adverts on TV there's colourful textiles, masks, drumming and cowrie shells. When you look out of the window you see something different.

Contradictions whichever way you look.

Meetings and Rain

It's been raining on and off all day and I cant decide whether I should get an umbrella or a mac-thing. So everything will be damp til then.

Meetings and planning - that's been the last two days in a nutshell.

I had a meeting with Ayi, Matthews and Moshe yesterday. Matthews and Moshe are two photographers who Ayi hooked me up with. They will be working as support facilitators on the project helping the group create their digital stories. Very exciting to make these connections between people. It'll also be fun working with people with so much creativity and energy.

And today I'm hoping to meet mike the Reuters photographer who is keen to participate in the project as well - running a workshop hopefully.

And lots of planning - workshops for this week, the schedule for the next few weeks.....

Dora

I met Dora when we were out photographing in Orange Farm one Saturday. As the group walked round the community with our cameras we were invited into peoples’ homes, asked what we were doing and then asked to ‘shoot’. It was very encouraging for me and the rest of the group – they couldn’t believe how friendly everyone was.

Dora is a lifelong ANC supporter but wanted us to photograph her so that the powers that be would help her. She’s not well and the house she’s living in is in disrepair.

The Workshops....

And this is how we've been working for the past four weeks or so.

That's Anna in her church outfit looking like she's praying. She was having her portrait taken by another participant when I photographed her.

The Team....

That'll be me having lunch. Ayi thinking during a workshop, Cindy and Thoko preparing to have her portrait taken with her teddy.

Orange Farm sights

A few photos from Orange Farm snatched during workshops.

Jo'burg Cityscape

Jo'burg in the afternoon from a taxi, traveling on Nelson Mandela bridge. His name is everywhere.

The Group in Orange Farm

This is the group of young people I'm working with in Orange Farm. The youngest is Jabulile who is 16 and the eldest is Rooi who's 33. They're all members of VRCO a community organisation which operates in Orange Farm.

I’ve been working as a freelance photographer and facilitator since 2000 or so and have had a strong personal and professional interest in Africa for many years. So when the UK charity PhotoVoice told me about a planned project in South Africa, asking if I was available, I jumped at the chance.
I’d lived in Durban in the late 1990’s just after the first democratic elections post-apartheid dismantled and Mandela had walked free. This project offered me my first return visit to the country and my first visit to Johannesburg.

PhotoVoice trains groups of people all over the world in photography, groups who are on the margins of their society – streetchildren, refugees, people with disabilities. Photography becomes a tool to tell their story to a world-wide audience and enables them engage in debates on issues that affect them.

This project runs from October until December 2006, working with young people who live in Orange Farm, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg with a population of over 1million. The group are members of Vukuzenzele Reflect Community Organisation which works in a township that faces the challenge of 70% unemployment, extreme poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS infection.

Their photography and stories will focus on the theme of HIV /AIDS and the issues the pandemic touches and will be collated into an exhibition to coincide with World AIDS Day at the beginning of December.

Links for more info: www.photovoice.org and www.lydiamartin.net

Alternative Tour in Soweto

(Tiff is on the left, Ayi in the middle and Jimmy the Chancer on the right)

On our first Sunday Tiff and I asked Ayi to show us round Soweto where he comes from. He was very accommodating, despite a hangover and asked his friend Jimmy to take us round in his car. It wasn't the tour we'd imagined - me having to sit in the front seat to wave at passers-by, random people being picked up and dropped off. But we saw some of the sites the Credo Mutwa cultural village and the Hector Petersen museum and the streets of the township.

Sunday-things

It's Sunday - and I've been catching up with Sunday-things and along the way I remembered I had set up this blog way back. Seeing as the BBC aren't jumping at the chance to take my thoughts and photos I thought I'd use this.

There's over four weeks of this South Africa trip to catch up on.....