I Spy With My Third Eye...

Rabat / Salé

2011-10-28T20:21:00.000-04:00

Rabat / Salé, Maroc, 2011.

Chellah

2011-10-27T20:46:00.000-04:00

Fes: a day in the life

2011-10-25T19:30:00.000-04:00

Fès, Maroc, 2011.

The fishbowl summer

2010-09-02T18:42:00.000-04:00

Vancouver/Montreal 2010.

Kaolack Rides: Motorcycle Taxi Drivers of Kaolack

2010-06-11T18:14:00.002-04:00

"Lamp Fall"

"Namory"

"Pape"

"Moussa"

"Amady"

"Babou"

"Zal"

"Lamp"

"Tapha"

Kaolack, March 2010.

Kaolack Rides!!

2010-06-10T13:54:00.003-04:00

Foreground: Modou

Khadim (driving) & Babacar

Ass Malick & Barra

Diouma, Unknown

Eladj "Le Boucher" & Friend

Yalla bu Ndaw (little Allah)

Demba, Namory, Unknown

"50 Dërëm", Unknown

Mor & Dabakh

Soyons Heureuses en Attendant le Bonheur

2010-06-09T14:59:00.008-04:00

Paris, Mars/Avril 2010.

Budapest II

2010-05-18T04:37:00.001-04:00

Budapest I

2010-05-17T04:33:00.000-04:00

La Mosquée Ndiouga Kébé

2010-04-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

proche

loin

Kaolack, Sénégal.

The Many Faces of Tabara Diop

2010-04-11T19:01:00.001-04:00

Keukenhof

2010-04-04T04:18:00.003-04:00

Amsterdam 2010.

Luna Park

2010-03-27T20:55:00.000-04:00

Genève, Suisse.

Les Pèlerins (The Pilgrims)

2010-02-26T22:29:00.001-05:00

Gamou 2010, Kaolack.

Les Mécaniciens

2010-02-09T07:46:00.000-05:00

Bamako: Night and Day

2010-01-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

20:00 - Point de Vente Oumou Kema

10:00 - Sotelma Telecentre

0:00 - Soutenir Les Aigles C'est Soutenir Le Mali

1:00 - Couture Le Don

2:00 - Superette La Ruche

4:00

6:00

8:00 - Nous Ne Prêtons Pas Aux Riches

9:00 - Quincaillerie de l'Espoir

10:00 - Glace

11:00 - Des Actions Rapides Pour Des Résultats Immédiats

12:00

13:00

14:00

16:00 - Binette Bisness Center

17:00

18:00 - Ambulancier Agréés

19:00 - Siginidemo

Portraits One

2010-01-12T13:40:00.001-05:00

Portraits Two or More

2010-01-10T13:09:00.003-05:00

Sénégal: Aspects

2009-12-25T11:39:00.005-05:00

Sénégal: Paysages

2009-12-12T10:29:00.006-05:00

Sénégal

2009-11-04T08:04:00.005-05:00

Translate

The Gambia

2009-10-01T14:53:00.002-04:00

MOPP 2009 - Epigrams for the 21st Century

2009-05-30T00:17:00.003-04:00

Mitchell's Plain Library

My contribution for the Month of People's Photography 2009 was a series of various scenes from around the world containing or implying certain pithy exhortations, forming a mini-manual of 'Epigrams for the 21st Century'. These were inspired by an earlier series of photographs of the ubiquitous tabloid newspaper headlines seen on lampposts and at street corners around Cape Town, which led me to the idea that a photograph could contain its own caption. The photos were framed simply in black file folders under the heading of 'Pictures and Words' (inspired from a set of chinese tiles for children) meant to emphasize the universality of the messages they convey.

Gugulethu Library

The theme for the 2009 exhibition was 'Maybe Tomorrow'. It was a landmark year, one which saw the cafe-circuit exhibitions augmented by a special traveling exhibition that spent one week each at four different venues in the Cape Flats: Gugulethu, Langa, Mitchell's Plain and Grassy Park, thus bringing photography within the reach of all Capetonians and not just residents downtown.

From the MOPP website:

This year’s theme, “Maybe Tomorrow” is expected to bring out peoples responses and personal ‘views’ of what tomorrow may bring in this time of change we find ourselves in both here in South Africa and around the Globe. Are you optimistic, skeptical…..even pessimistic about the future ?

Photographers are asked to submit images that best describe their thoughts on the possibilities offered by our future, or on the possible futures available to us, in any way they choose to interpret the theme.

The Dow Brewery

2008-12-31T06:21:00.001-05:00

For more Montreal photos click the Canada label at right.

The Peel Sessions

2008-10-27T02:28:00.002-04:00

Montréal 2008

2008-09-02T21:36:00.000-04:00

Bangladesh Works! (Sadakalo)

2008-08-26T05:38:00.000-04:00

home is where the heart is

2008-08-23T17:14:00.001-04:00

Nepal

2008-06-24T20:13:00.003-04:00

The Thapa Family, Talbeshi: A Portrait

2008-06-12T20:35:00.000-04:00

Godawari

2008-06-01T08:11:00.000-04:00

Your Dream is Our Perfection

2008-05-23T17:41:00.000-04:00

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban

2008-05-10T20:21:00.002-04:00

কাছে

দূরে

বাংলাদেশের সোনার জাতীয় সংসদ ভবন, শেরে-বাংলা নগর, ঢাকা. স্থপতি: লুইস কান

Old Dhaka

2008-04-14T14:19:00.000-04:00

Old Delhi

2008-03-27T02:51:00.000-04:00

Sharp Angle

2008-03-03T15:22:00.000-05:00

The Rickshaw Graveyard

2008-02-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

MOPP 2008 - One Long Street

2008-02-22T01:23:00.002-05:00

This year, being geographically indisposed, I decided to create an on-line exhibition around the theme of 'Home Sweet Street'. Dubbed 'One Long Street', a title intended to be taken literally but referencing the famous Cape Town street at the same time, the series collected together street photographs from various locations taken from a head-on angle. I made minute adjustments and played with different orderings of the photos so that the lines and 'street level' of one would flow smoothly into the next. Placed side-by-side (after having discarded the idea of one long composite photomontage), they give the impression of a world connected by its lowest common denominator - the street.

The choice of a web medium for this series was a prescient one, as it probably got a wider exposure than it would have as a print exhibition. As reviewer Miles Keylock mused, the images "flatten the West’s global hegemony with images of Cape Town, Nagoya, Fes, Lisbon and other great urban centres of the world." Read the full review at the AvantAfro blog. The actual site was linked off the main MOPP page and is now archived here.

Photographer's statement from the original site:

Some say the street is the stage for the drama of life. I prefer to think of it as the spectator.
To the eyes of the doors & windows, to the ears of the lampposts & beaten pavement, through the dark alleys & gutters of dust & trash, nothing passes unnoticed.
The camera is also complicit in this gesture, which is universal across urban cultures. In the street can happen everything, and nothing in particular. These photos are snapshots of the latter, scenes in which life simply goes on until the next corner.

Bangladesh I

2008-02-15T04:09:00.000-05:00

Bangladesh II

2008-02-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

We Take Requests

2008-01-01T07:24:00.000-05:00

Urban Pockets

2007-12-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

Tiny Victories

2007-09-22T06:53:00.002-04:00

Snow 1 - Bicycle 0

Traffic Signs 1 - Nature 0

Nature 1 - Monument 0

Garbage 1 - Nature 0

Vending Machine 1 - Nature 0

Chaos 1 - Development 0

Zoo 1 - Penguins 0

Tree Stump 0 - Floor Tiles 0

Bricks 0 - Gravity 1

Nature 1 - Vehicles 0

Heliotropy 1 - Vents 0

Decay

2007-09-22T06:52:00.003-04:00

After the Apocalypse

2007-09-11T07:51:00.001-04:00

Alaska

2007-07-16T21:40:00.000-04:00

Whittier

2007-07-15T21:38:00.001-04:00

Pillars of Industry

2007-05-29T05:12:00.000-04:00

Cape Town in Black & White (and Coloured)

2007-03-20T05:16:00.000-04:00

Cape Town II

2007-03-20T04:02:00.002-04:00

Cape Town I

2007-03-20T03:56:00.000-04:00

MOPP 2007 - The Blind Camera

2007-02-14T05:42:00.002-05:00

The exhibition that would prove to be the inspiration for this website, The Blind Camera was a callback to the forgotten 'tactile' element of photography. The idea was simple: to create a series of pictures by and for the blind (really, when you think about it, a neglected demographic as far as photography is concerned). A colleague of mine, a former radio presenter who happened to be blind, used to type up scripts on a braille typewriter, which he showed me how to operate. Around that time I hit upon the idea of creating a braille 'image': a thematic sentence, written in braille, that would evoke an image. To the untrained eye (or finger), it would simply look like a pattern of dots, whereas inside would be hidden a vivid image.

I had my colleague help me to create 8 of these 'braille images', which I then mounted into proper matboard picture frames and presented as the 'real' photograph. On the other side of the same frame, I pasted an ersatz 'visual' representation of that vignette - that is, what the 'braille image' might evoke or look like to a disadvantaged 'sighted' person - and surrounded it with braille paper on the frame itself.

Detail of exhibited print showing braille frame

I wanted people to feel the pictures as well, so I hung them unusually low, below the sightlines of most people, so that they would be obliged to grasp the frames to get a closer look, and in so doing feel the braille with their hands. The result was a tactile, textural photo experience.

The show was held at the Arternative Gallery on Long Street, in a basement space converted especially for the occasion. The theme was 'I spy with my third eye'. I proposed the blind camera as being that third eye, because since it can only capture and not interpret, in a sense it is blind as well.

Original text:

With two eyes we gain depth perception over one eye. Do we also gain another dimension with a third eye? The camera is blind; it can deceive but cannot judge. The true representation of these vignettes is in the pattern of raised dots. The images are simply the camera's conception of the artist's vision and only approximate the colour and richness of the original.

In addition, this year's MOPP presented for the first time a Portable Exhibition: a series of half-size posters, with images and interviews (collected by myself and others) from select members of the Camissa Collective. The Portable Exhibition was made available to libraries and community centers around Cape Town and beyond, with the goal of expanding MOPP's mandate of connecting and empowering people through still images.

Read more about MOPP & the Camissa Collective here.

Read about the origins of the name Camissa here.

Read archived interviews with Mandla Mnyakama, Nadia Brown, Francois Raubenheimer and RealRozzano.

Month of People's Photography 2007: The Portable Exhibition

Parker Mah 2007.

Interview with Mandla Mnyakama: MOPP 2007

2007-01-13T03:56:00.001-05:00

Interviewed Saturday, January 13, 2007

By Parker Mah

See Mandla Mnyakama's Portfolio here.

How did you first become interested in photography?
I initially had an interest in art. I grew up sketching art in school and would often try to visualize what I was thinking. I dropped out of school in matric due to family difficulties and went to do casual jobs to support my family. I later came across an advert for an art course at a community-based skills training centre which was previously based in Woodstock, now called AMAC [the Arts and Media Access Centre]. I saved some money and bought a second hand camera to enroll myself. There was a photography component to the course, and around that time I fell in love with photography. I just get motivated by pushing myself. I would work during the day and attend the course in the evening. On the completion of the course I left the job and started to develop my knowledge in photography.

So you were influenced by different forms of art?
Yes, I have a lot of passion for fine art as well. But I discovered it was more advantageous to do both pictures and drawings. The aesthetic of documentary photography – that was the most important thing and that made me not follow that [fine art] path.

What type of camera do you use?
I started with a second-hand Canon AE-1. Later, a City-based photographer who got impressed with my work, Barry Gool, sponsored me with a Nikon F4, an advanced SLR, which I used for a few years. Later I bought my first digital camera, because it’s much more convenient to download them. Within a few moments I can send them to various newspapers where I usually contribute with my pictures and short news write-ups.

How did you get your start as a freelance photographer?
It was during an anti-apartheid march in Cape Town in 1993. at the time I was still busy with my course at CAP. The whole CBD was full of ANC protesters…there were some protesters who had climbed up a statue at the corner of Adderley and Wale Street and they were banging on it with their placards and sticks. I was just in the right place at the right time to capture that moment. I took the film to Die Burger, they liked the pictures, and out of that they selected one image that appeared on page 2. That was my first published photograph.

What have you been doing since then?

I moved to East London, where I spent some time exploring photojournalism, while simultaneously documenting unacceptable social conditions in and around my community, At a later stage I was called in by a local daily newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, to assist them as an in-house freelancer. When I came back I felt like I had enough experience to go out on my own as a freelancer and I’ve been doing that ever since.

Do you always carry a camera with you?
Yes, I always carry a camera with me. Sometimes I even carry a printer. As a freelancer, it can be difficult to find ways of making income sometimes, so I would supplement what I do with portraits for people on the streets, in the townships, or at entertainment shows as well as corporate functions I would come across around the city.Initially it was only about walking the street to look for interesting subjects I could photograph but I would always experience problems with people in my own neighbourhood – Philippi, Nyanga – bothering me to take pictures of them. When I was using a film camera I would shoot them, take the film for development and printing, and bring their portraits the next day for only R10, a photo. Now that I have a digital camera I could use a printer, so I could sort out the problem immediately, and wouldn’t have to come the next day. Residents would invite me in to do the pics and I would print them for R12 for an instant photo. While I’m there, I look around the house and if I find something interesting, I’ll ask permission and capture it, or if I’m not in a position to ask, I’ll just take it.

By the way, how do you approach the issue of photographic permission?
It is better to approach them, introduce yourself and talk about what intentions you have. I have dealt with the kangaroo court in Gugs and surrounding townships, and it’s a good idea to convince the people who are involved in the process of what you’re doing. They don’t want to you to just take photos. People must know you are trying to help the situation. In one instance a collegue of mine had his camera confiscated by angry residents, because he failed to listen to them.

Do you think photography can be used as a tool for social change?
Yes. You can educate our communities by exposing society’s problems for the attention of the authorities, so they can find a solution at the end of the day. And there are success stories…you can always capture them in an interesting and informative manner and help them out by getting them exposure. You must show them something – the plights of different people, so they can change for the better.

What is photography to you?
Photography is an art form which lets me express myself artistically and helps me to learn about life. It can be also used to document history and other achievements we have.

Do you prefer film or digital?
Normally I use digital – it’s more advantageous overall. But if I’m on assignment, or doing a special project, I will first evaluate the subject, and see what is appropriate – black and white or colour film, or digital. With digital, it makes things easier – to recombine settings, even to choose whatever ISO you would like to shoot with. On the other hand, if I am thinking black and white, it’s much better to shoot with film rather than shoot with digital in colour and then convert to black and white. Pictures must be taken with the final image in mind.

Who are some of the photographers who have influenced you?
Jurgen Schadeberg, Peter Magubane, Alf Kumalo, Paul Weinberg, David Goldblatt, Fanie Jason, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Santu Mofokeng. I like photographers with a tendancy towards social documentary. And Benny Gool – I idolize him.

How do you choose your subject matter?
That’s a very strange thing to me…sometimes you don’t choose it, it presents itself to you and the only thing you will be required to do is to think and plan about ways of shooting it and presenting it to your audience. There are times when you will have to look at the concerns of people out there, or unacceptable situations our people find themselves in.

Can anyone be a photographer?
I think so. People perceive things in different ways. With shots of their kids, family photos, self-portraits – you can ‘read’ the type of person who is holding the camera. Everyone thinks differently.

How did you hear about MOPP?
Through word of mouth, a friend of mine who is also working as a freelancer. I was fascinated to involve myself. It’s a good initiative where people from diverse community backgrounds learn from one another. We are not about selfishness or corruption and no one judges each other there. To me it’s a learning curve because it’s all about community and youth development.

What are you going to show in this year’s exhibition?

I’ve got a story, but I must sit down and edit it – it’s one of my recent projects.

Interview with RealROZZANO: MOPP 2007

2007-01-05T03:30:00.001-05:00

Interviewed Friday, January 5th, 2007
by Parker Mah

How did you first get introduced to photography?

My brother helped me a lot. He let me use this little camera that took old 110 cartridge film, which I used whenever I could. When he got a better camera, I got that one. That was my first real experience, back in ’85.

Have you ever studied photography/darkroom techniques?

I’ve got no darkroom experience. My brother did – he had studied, and he taught me a lot of small techniques. What was cool was the whole process of not having studied, but to be so lucky to capture those moments.

Have you been taking pictures ever since?

It was on and off. My serious ‘pick up the camera’ moment was probably in 2002. I had a gig in Knysna, which is about 450km out of Cape Town. I flew in on Saturday to George around noon, rushed to Cash Crusaders, and bought a used Ricoh for about 279R. I was even bargaining with the lady to get it down to 250R [laughs]. I had 3-4 rolls on me already, and I walked out of there and started snapping pictures of the place, the taxi rank, the buildings, everything. On my way back I took some ‘aerial shots’ from the window of the plane. Anyway, I took over 4000 pictures – all on film – with that camera, which lasted me from 2002 to 2005. Out of that came the MOPP pictures…actually, I still have a whole shoebox full of printed film.

What would you like to do with all these pictures?

Different things. There was one mixtape that came out of a gig I did at Vuyo’s, where I actually put a mini-exhibition on the CD. I took 2 spools of nice pictures – not arty farty, but just of people dancing and having a good time at the event. I love getting around socially, and I’m capturing all the time, so I think those pictures would be worth a nice coffee table book.

What do you think of the digital vs. film debate?

I love both. I spent 3 years with a film camera and I spent lots of money. I would actually develop the negs straight to CD. With a digital, I do have the comfort of just downloading pics onto a PC. I always carry a camera with me, a compact digital one. But really, the camera doesn’t matter. I should show you a picture of that Ricoh – it’s such a shitty camera. One day I was picking up some pictures from Campus Camera in Obs, and this pro who happened to see them told me, “those are nice…you must have a real nice camera!” [laughs]

On the photo-spectrum, with photojournalism being at one end and pure aestheticism on the other, where do you place yourself, stylistically?

I’m definitely a documenter, because I’m actively involved in the community, and when there’s an event going on here or there, I want to document it. But on the other hand, it’s not my hectic duty to be doing weddings and so on. I wait for the moment. I think I have an eye for photography, which is why I sign my photos with ‘Rozzano’s Eye’.

You’ve done quite a bit of travelling between Cape Town and Jo’burg. How do the two cities differ visually?

Jo’burg is very flat, and it’s also the world’s biggest urban forest, with over 6 million trees. So in Jo’burg I take pictures of parks, the sunset, the landscape. But I also like the CBD, the business center, and Yeoville in particular, as well as the nightclub scene in places like Rosebank and Sandton. In Cape Town, there’s the mountains, the sea, and a million places to go.

What types of things did/do you like to shoot?

Lots of events, because I’m involved with music. Also people, buildings, culture, lifestyle, how people work and travel, pictures taken from trains, and especially grassroots stuff highlighting the home and our roots; and activities, things that don’t get into the mainstream, like how people party in the woods. I do shoot a lot of hip-hop things, like breakdancing positions, styles and sometimes graffiti, because often I’m DJing these events.

Can photography be used to effect social change?

Youth today are pretty clued up on modern technology, so if youth in the ghetto could have access to cameras, it would give them something to work from. I mean, imagine if we start seeing ‘mix’ CDs floating around with digital pictures on them, or if they have ‘competitions’ using cellphone cameras. What’s happened with audio is that CDs are being waved out the door. All the music now is on CD-Rs and MP3 players. The same thing is happening with photography and cellphone cameras. You can go into the chemist nowadays and you’ll see a Kodak kiosk for downloading directly from phones. What if we have a campaign to go through schools and say, “we want your pics.”

Where does MOPP fit in to this campaign?

Well, I have a son, and I am motivating him to exhibit this year as part of MOPP, maybe at the [Mitchell’s Plain] town center library, or at his high school, and inspire drug addicts, or kids doing nothing, to do the same. As someone who’s part of the core [Khamisa] crew, I am interested in seeing a developmental program emerge.

How will you tackle this year’s MOPP theme, “I Spy With My Third Eye?”

I feel I’m already working from my third eye, you know, my pineal gland. [laughs]

What did you exhibit for MOPP last year?

Last exhibition I really went out of my way to show a lot of shit. I had 3 installations with 4 themes. The first one was called ‘95’ which is the prefix for all the trains heading to Kapteinsklip in Mitchell’s Plain from Cape Town station. I would take pictures of people on the train, full or empty, either from the train or inside of it. Sometimes people where squished up against each other like cattle. ‘95’ is also the name of a song D-format wrote about 15 years ago.
The second theme was ‘Geto @ Sunset’, which is also the name of a Moodphase 5ive song. They only sell Cape Town from the front, from the tourist perspective, and I really wanted to capture the mountain from the Cape Flats side. I would stop along the R300 and capture the mountain, Mitchell’s plain, or whatever, with the sun in the background.
Third was ‘How High’, also a Method Man and Redman song, which was all aerial shots I caught from the plane. There was one I took flying over Table Mountain where it’s surrounded by this whole puff, and it looked like cotton wool.
The most famous one was called ‘Nagte’ [night], also a tune by J7, a local producer. This was a series of scenes taken from behind the DJ box.

What’s in store for this year?

I have a shitload of stuff to go through. I have a digital printing company that will sponsor the printing. Usually what I’ll do is sit on the computer and break them down. I’ll crop what I don’t want out of the shot and edit it – without changing the colour. I set up an A3 sheet with guidelines and pull all the similar shots together so they’re the same size. Then I’ll sign it, ‘Rozzano’s Eye’, and put my caption down.

Interview with Francois Raubenheimer: MOPP 2007

2007-01-04T03:35:00.000-05:00

Interviewed on Thursday, January 4th 2007

by Parker Mah

When did you first start shooting?

I was too young to remember. I just picked up someone's camera and started shooting stuff that was around me in my life. At the start, I learned by taking photos of groups of people at family gatherings. People wanted a group photo, and it would be my turn to have the camera. There was no pertinent moment really.

Have you continued photographing ever since that time?

Yes. In the beginning, it was only a hobby. In university, I was a photographer for the student newspaper. I took a lot of travel photos after that. In between things, there have always been photos...then I started working on projects like MOPP.

How did you get involved with MOPP?

Just through my group of friends. It was a simultaneous movement of all 14 people in the collective to just create this thing. Everyone went into it just to be part of that. It was kind of similar to my first exhibition 10 years ago, which was also a 'guerilla' exhibition: that was another arts festival where a group of people came together to have their own exhibition at the same place and same time as the main festival, but making sure that what we did wasn't in competition or in collaboration with the mainstream art venues.

What is photography to you?

It's a tool that allows me to communicate things that I experience to other people, without words.

What type of camera do you use?

An EOS 350 D. It's my first digital camera, and it does influence my style. I'm less focused about being specific with every single shot. With film and the budget that goes with it, I'm more conservative about the amount of shots that I take and I tend to be more careful. With digital, the law of averages counts in my favour, because I can take a lot of pictures and pick

the best. So i have more freedom to experiment. It's good to have new technology to learn about and to discover the unique attributes of digital photography.

Since you have worked with both film and digital, what do you think these new attributes are?

Film and a disk: the one involves processing and the other involves the ability to manipulate. The very way those images are stored, that is, the binary aspect of the digital storage medium, allows me to play around with more variables to implement new images.

How do you choose your subject matter?

It comes to me more than I go to it. I'm not very fond of setting up the shot - I'd rather shoot an image in the way that I see it, regardless of how things are positioned. I shoot people, things, places, and events - there are amazing images everywhere around us, we only have to recognise them.

How will you tackle this year's MOPP theme, "I Spy With My Third Eye"?

There's a lot of leeway in a theme like that. I personally interpret it as an opportunity to show things that I have seen in my unique way. There's also that slightly mysterious element of the theme that allows me to go into abstract photography. The saying 'To have an eye for photography' refers to the innate ability to see an image and capture it, and that's the way I

attempt to bring my work in line with the theme.

What can we expect from you in this year's exhibition?

I limited myself to pictures that i took between MOPP 2006 and 2007, so it's effectively photos from the last year. The work covers quite a wide range of topics. I want to experiment with printing on canvas, which gives the images an interesting textural quality, and bridges the gap between traditional photography and other visual art forms such as painting.

Do you always carry a camera with you?

No, but I think there's incredible value in having it with you all the time. It keeps you in touch with the practical aspect of photography, so when the moment comes for doing really creative work, you can focus on creativity and not be bogged down by technical difficulties.

What photographers have influenced you?

I'm not influenced by any photographer in particular, but there is the element of mental overlap - it might not have been a photographer that I was following but maybe a certain image that struck a chord in me and influenced me in that way.

Have any other forms of art or media influenced you?

Yes, film. Not physically making it, but observing it a lot. I've been involved in organizing the film screening night on Sundays at Zula Lounge for about two years. And in a way, everything sensory influences you one way or another, or has rubbed off subconsciously, so the other [forms of media] must have influenced me as well, but I can't say that it ever guided me in

a specific direction.

Do you think photography can be used as a tool for social change?

Definitely. Just look at what photojournalism does. More people can experience significant events by seeing the image and that can cause social influence. At the same time, on the negative side, something close to a lot of people is self-image, and presenting a specific body image through media does guide people in a certain fashion. Photographs can influence people as a whole by changing their idea of what is socially acceptable.

What do you think deserves to be documented the most right now?

Open spaces. There will be enough people in journalism to keep track of how things were. But the most valuable commodity will eventually be space. So photograph it while it's still there! But really, I would attribute equal value to all objects in photographs. There isn't really a specific thing that deserves to be documented any more than another, in my opinion.

What do you think will be the social impact of cheap, abundant cameras putting digital photography within the reach of anyone?

Human nature is unpredictable and I can't say exactly how it will go. But there have already been changes in society due to an overabundance of cameras, especially in the news industry. Cellphone cameras are also starting to extend communication because you can now show an image of what you saw instead of verbally describing it. Then there's also the strange dynamic of images losing their value, their "specialness", by the sheer volume and abundance of imagery everywhere around you - so it becomes like a two-way battle of being able to capture many images, but that these images might not really be valuable.

Interview with Nadia Brown: MOPP 2007

2007-01-03T03:46:00.000-05:00

Interviewed Thursday, January 4, 2007
by Parker Mah

How and when did you first start shooting?

Abdul [Dube] encouraged me a lot, to just go out and shoot in my free time. It was his Kodak project that sparked my interest in 2003. It was an amateur photography exhibition with the theme of "What is Cape Town?" I submitted two pictures that I had taken with my dad's old Russian Zenit.

What type of camera are you using now?
I'm using a Holga, a very simple camera that uses slide film. It has a very specific focus point and only two modes - two little icons on the dial of a man and a mountain. The images produced are very characteristic 'holga images', with dark shadows around the corners.

Have you studied photography or art at school?

I did study art and using mixed media at school. I was lucky to be in a class that was very open, which gave me some visual training. I haven't had proper training, although I did take a full fine arts course at UCT which had a photography element. It was too regimented for me, but I did gain some experience developing my own prints in the darkroom.

What do you think of the digital vs. film debate?

There is an element of surprise, when you see the image appear on the paper in the darkroom, that I think is destroyed with the digital medium. I do appreciate the darkroom process, even though I believe that the image is basically already complete when it's exposed in the camera. Although film can be expensive, the quality of the image is lost somewhere in those pixels.

What do you think will be the social impact of cheap, abundant cameras putting digital photography within anyone's reach?
As it gets more accessible it is changing the essence of what photography is. On the other hand, there is less emphasis on "who took it, who are they"; and more on the image itself, and that is a good thing.

What is photography to you?

Photography is a medium I use to capture moments that can never be repeated. To me, any moment that is captured is already a true image.

What types of themes do you like to focus on?

I like to play on the relationships between things - being together vs. separate, solitude vs. unity. There is a shot I took on Loop Street of a mosque and a church right across the street from each other. That epitomizes what Cape Town is to me.

How has your style and subject matter evolved over the years?

It's definitely become more arbitrary, more concentrated on one theme…perhaps more mundane. More towards what doesn't stand out as something you'd want to look at. For instance, I was walking down Long Street last January, and I spied two paperclips connected with bubblegum on the sidewalk. I like to elevate the mundane.

Do you think photography can be used to effect social change?

Yes. There's not enough education in Cape Town, and South Africa in general, about visual literacy - how to be critical of everything we see around us. We need to teach youth how to see what is around them, to get them more involved in the community.

Which photographers/artists have influenced you?

I've been inspired a lot by South African photographers of the apartheid era, like David Goldblatt, and Paul Weinberg. They encapsulate our history with politically charged images. I also like Jane Alexander because she integrates the art she's done with the environment around her. Her series on Long Street street kids - to whom she'd given rabbit masks - were some very displaced, discomfiting images.

What, in your opinion, deserves to be documented most right now?

Our identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.

How do you approach a particular theme?

If I've captured the subject, I've succeeded. For last years MOPP exhibition, the theme was "Ghettogether". I live in Woodstock, so I've had my 'pinch' of the ghetto. Coming from a staunch educated background, it was like a different world. I just have to think about what [the theme] means to me.

What do you have planned for this year's MOPP exhibition?

This year's theme is "I spy with my third eye". To me, that suggests a detective element. I'm thinking of putting together slides in a sort of 'mind map', like a display of evidence.

What does MOPP mean to you?
To me the MOPP project created a sense of hope about where photography can be eventually taken in Cape Town - anybody is allowed to come in and express themselves, regardless of technical ability. I'm even trying to get more of my friends involved.

Still Life

2006-12-24T09:08:00.002-05:00

Alberta

2006-10-20T06:10:00.000-04:00