Ncevu documents the margins with
I first met Masixole Ncevu (aka Macx Ncevu) when we worked as photographers in Cape Town in 2015. He was studying at the Vega School of Photography, and my first impression was of a fresh-faced and innocent student. It soon became clear that behind an almost cherubic façade lay a wealth of experience and street-wise savvy.
Born in the Eastern Cape in the 1990s, Ncevu’s childhood mirrors millions of South African lives with a movement from his home to the harder and harsher realities of the city. He is now based in Johannesburg and Cape Town, documenting the lives of people living on the margins of both cities.
There, Ncevu’s innocent charm is not a weakness, but perhaps his greatest advantage. The photographer’s passion and honesty allow him to gain the trust of his subjects and, in return, he offers them something we all covet: the opportunity to be seen.
Ncevu’s work falls into what can be loosely defined as the tradition of street photography. That contentious but candid form that some argue was forged (or at least refined) by French photographer HenriCartier Bresson.
“I didn’t study at Michaelis,” Ncevu jokes. “My work is very simple.”
Simple though it may seem, Ncevu’s work fits into the South African tradition of ethnographic photography – a form first spawned during the days of colonialism, which has been reproduced, explored and subverted for most of the 20th century.
“I’ve been working with a foreign anthropologist for a while, which is a good paying job,” Ncevu says.
Such a statement might make some uneasy, given the largely tarnished reputation foreign anthropologists have on the continent. But the sensitivity and honesty with which Ncevu works helps him to resist the affront of the white “gaze”.
“Sometimes I feel like a magician, because people are so comfortable with me. I am always very honest from the start.”
This focus on honesty has produced an interesting current that threads through his work. Some-