Related To The Pavement Posted On 4th January 2024 To Magazine & Stories

Concrete Jungle

At the crack of dawn, the sleepless vagrant remains glued to the stone of the pavement. A long road with no intersection, apha indlela ayibuzwa kwabaphambili. As the light creeps into the skyline, all a city dweller sees is blood and grime. With so much dog shit in the streets, beggars are still scrapping for bones to chew. A muffled groan & moaning of a trapped miner, buskers are constantly offbeat & in a permanent state of gloom and cynicism. The nostalgic aroma of the community’s soap kitchen, has village girls and boys banishing whatever throwback emotions the pot triggered. Hopelessness and rotting away of peace, one can only walk tall in this concrete jungle. An agonizing radiance of a once promised land, the city’s gold no longer glitters.

Johannesburg

IT IS JUST A FEELING. When I envisioned how I wanted to photograph Johannesburg and Soweto people, I just thought of photographing on a black and white because of the the streets of Johannesburg with their bustling life, noise, smiles, texture and beautiful people. It’s a good idea to think about the type of subject matter you will usually be photographing and pick a film which will cover most situations. If you are photographing still life in black and white, a film with a slower speed rating and fine grain, such as ILFORD is a good choice.

Powerful Images

The busy streets can be a challenge, on the other hand, can be a beautiful lesson. There is a big room of getting it wrong and a little room of getting it right, chances of going home with a powerful images or stories are determined by your process, building relationships with those you photograph, be open and honest to learn from the conversations made with those you photograph, slowing down because when you slow down you start seeing things in a different way. It gives you time to let your brain to create and process. The grant has helped me so much on approaching this project and was enough for me to create, learn, make mistakes and keep on making images.

Depends on the film stock

I love the timelessness of the ILFORD film stock. Early in my career as a Documentary photographer, I photographed both color and black and white film, depending on the personal project that I was working on. I began to notice that I approached a project differently depending on the type of film stock I was using to make those photographs. I have been scared to photograph black and white for the longest time and I have always appreciated how film photography teachers you to think before you press that shutter. For me photography is not only about beautiful sharp images, it is always about the experience and the feeling I got before making the soft focused image that adds into the narrative I’m pushing and how we see ourselves.

Just a guy with a bike

I’m just a guy with a bike, a camera and film stock on my backpack who’s seeking to archive the ever changing lives of people moving around the Johannesburg and Soweto. Black and white photography removes any distraction of color and helps the viewer to focus on other aspects of the photograph. Such as the subject, the textures, shapes, patterns, and the composition. The film stock helped me to achieve the basics—tones of grey, quality of light, contrast, composition and texture.

Search of an opportunity

In this work I have made in the city I’am in attempt to search for the presence of something that I can learn from. With the city there is no doubt that everything has a story. A street name, a building , the lady and man sitting on the side of the pavement, no one can be sure of what would happen in the next second, everyone move in speed in search of an opportunity.

Images ©Andile Bhala