If you fall ill during a visit to South Africa, you have two choices available to you for medical treatment: Western doctors and hospitals or traditional Sangomas. Sangomas are an intrinsic part of the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele culture. They are highly respected in said cultures, often helping people rid themselves of bad spirits often brought about by witchcraft. The healing process is a ritual one. Sangomas wear traditional cloths, often to please individual ancestors and ...
Burmese migrant worker abuse is rampant in Thailand. One 19 year old Karen worker told me that the Thai police were known to abuse and harass workers on a weekly basis, even if they did have a work permit, they were still expected to pay the police to prevent further abuse With the current state of Burma's economy, hundreds of thousands of Burmese workers seek employment in neighbouring countries, away from the oppressive military-led State Peace and ...
For my second assignment, I decided to visit a town in the Northern Cape, called Orania. The town was purchased from the Department of Water Affairs, who originally created the small town to house workers and staff responsible for the construction of the nearby Vanderkloof damn, in 1990 at a cost of R1,5 million. Orania was officially opened on the 11th April 1991. Orania's founders created the town with a vision of ensuring the Afrikanerdom heritage and way ...
Assignment #5 was to produce a 5 picture story about a topic of my choice. I decided to go out and document the shark net teams, who protect he coastline of Durban, South Africa on a daily basis. The KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board, situated in Umhlanga Rocks, Durban, South Africa, was founded in 1964 to protect beach users from shark attacks. Protection is provided by an extensive network of nets. The daily task of maintaining the ...
The assignment was to go out and take portraits of people, which is pretty much the bread and butter of most photographers working in the commercial world. I think every photographer has their own unique way of approaching a portrait sitting. I prefer environmental portraits, to really show the viewer where the person is and how they fit in with that environment. I concentrated on your average person, people who serve you in the shops, clean your ...
Our second assignment concentrates on the classic genre of street photography. I've loved shooting street for a long time now, so relished doing this assignment. The brief was to create three pictures from different situations on the street that focus on human behavior. Now this is where it got tricky for me. Durban doesn't have a bustling metropolis. ...
The first assignment for my LCC MA was a brief on 'People at work'. I chose 3 different types of people: Drug dealer Natal Sharks board marine conversation team Make-up Artist What was technically hard about this assignment was the initial constraints placed on us by Paul. I understand that the restraints on lens length (35mm or 50mm) and film ISO (400, no pushing). This actually put more pressure on me than I would have liked. With digital, you ...
I did mention previously that this year will see new challenges and take me in a different direction. I guess now is the time to mention that I have been accepted into the rather prestigious MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of the Arts in London. I'd been working out what direction I wanted to go ...