Ty of and in us
was: You might see that woman as going through a lot of shit but at the same time, why can’t we see her as someone who is contributing to the community because she is selling veggies and stuff to the community? Why can’t we see her as a provider? So from then on, I had this thing of shooting people who aren’t really heard in the community.
I shot the recyclers who were here [in Maboneng]. They are from Lesotho. They were telling me about how much money they make in a month and they have families back in Lesotho and they send money home. The reason why they wear dirty clothes is because the work requires that they wear it.
They are not homeless people. There are a lot of misconceptions we have about our own community. Also with taxi drivers. That was my main thing because I use taxis all the time.
I like desaturating pictures a lot. Desaturation is like my thing. The dominant colour, I make it pop a bit more. That is how I edit my pictures. It’s the same process I have been using since I started using [the editing software] Lightroom. I feel like it makes them more raw even. I don’t know if that is what takes away that poverty [porn] element, I don’t know.
What I’m proud of is that my work has been able to, to some extent, change how people see their own spaces, not just the negative parts to it. You are able to explore other parts of it because I have approached it in this way.
Now, I want to tell the same stories I have been telling, but now I want to work on them properly, whereas my projects would come unintentionally.
When you say to people you are telling a story about something, you are doing it with pictures and people think there is some writing that should go with that.
I think there are ways where we can do a proper editorial shoot but it can still come out as a story about the kinds of places that I usually frequent.
Our spaces have always been used for documentary but I want to look at just the beauty that was in our houses growing up, like the room dividers and stuff, the beauty that comes with that.