A new photography initiative in Gauteng will follow the international trend of bringing the works of great and emergent photographers to public spaces.
Photography is considered the most democratic of art forms, and festivals like Lagos Photo, the Delhi Photo Festival and the important Swiss festival of Images Vevey all include public platforms that bring the medium directly to the people.
The local initiative is called Roadhouse and for its inaugural event, a photographic screening will take place at the Casa Blanca Roadhouse on Saturday, April 1, from 7pm to midnight.
The exhibition, which will be shown outdoors on a high-resolution, large projection screen, is titled East Rand, and it focuses on this district of enormous visual richness and complex social evolution.
Ekurhuleni has provided inspiration for a range of photographers who have visited the region where they have produced some of their finest work to date.
Each body of work takes a close look at the history, way of life and events that have taken place on the East Rand, from 1960 till today.
The screening hopes to introduce Brakpan to the power of photography and bring art lovers to the area.
The Roadhouse project is the initiative of photographer Marc Shoul who himself, produced a body of work in Brakpan.
Roadhouse is committed to screening and promoting art in alternative and accessible venues to increase exposure, entertain and change perceptions. Screenings will consist of photographic images and works of art in conjunction with DJs, musicians and performance artists.
The photographers include Shoul, David Goldblatt, Ronald and Torrance Ngilima, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Sibusiso Bheka, Raymond Mokoena and Jabulani Dhlamini.
DJ Young Smuts will be mixing music to the images.
• David Goldblatt
‘In Boksburg’ – Stands as one of the most important observations of a middle-class white community in South Africa during the apartheid years.
Published in 1982, it presents an accumulation of everyday details from the community of Boksburg, through which a larger portrait is revealed of white societal values within a racially divided state.
• Lindokuhle Sobekwa
‘A Place of Peace’ – Thokoza was the first black township to be established in the early 1950s on the East Rand.
During the early 1990s Thokoza was involved in a rival conflict between ANC and IFP supporters where 688 people died during the violence.
• Sibusiso Bheka
‘At Night They Walk With Me’ – Thokoza is the location for photographs that tell a story about squatters, bond houses and RDP houses.
Bheka portrays a way of living and educating the viewer to enhance the knowledge they have about the townships at night.
• Raymond Mokoena
‘Amaphela (Cockroaches)’ – Daveyton, a township in Benoni, had a fascinating form of transport before modern-day taxis – 1960s Chevrolet cars.
Daveyton was the only township in South Africa to have so many of these cars and each car had to carry eight passengers.
Mokoena started documenting these cars during the early 2000s.
• Marc Shoul
‘Brakpan’ – Shoul works largely in portraiture/documentary photography that observes the complex social issues in South Africa.
Shoul photographed Brakpan between 2008 to 2012.
• Ronald and Torrance Ngilima
‘Images from a historical archive’ – The images in the Ronald Ngilima collection consist of commissioned portraits and documentary photographs of the communities in the Benoni Old Location and Wattville township.
They depict people from various coloured, Indian and African communities in their home on the street and in the studio that Ronald had set up in his living room.
The collection contains the photographic archive of Ronald Ngilima, dating from late 1940s until he tragically died on March 13, 1960.
After his death his son Torrace continued photographing and adding his negatives to the collection for another five years.
Torrace died on April 19, 1998.
• Jabulani Dhlamini
‘Recaptured’ – While his work has focused on the township of Sharpeville it has resonance with themes present on the East Rand.
Dhlamini explores the results of his engagement, since 2008, with the residents of Sharpeville, reflecting on the massacre that took place there on March 21, 1960, as a turning point in South African history.
Also read:
Art exhibition to celebrate Human Rights Day
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