Mr. Mkhize's Portrait.

And Other Stories From the New South Africa. Photographs and text by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

Trolley, London, 2004. 180 pp., 85 color illustrations, 6¼x8½".

We met Mr. Mkhize in a migrant worker’s hostel in a township outside Johannesburg, South Africa. He told us that he had been photographed twice before in his life. The first was for his Passbook, a document which allowed the apartheid government to control his movements. The second was for his ID book, which allowed him to vote in the country's first democratic elections. Ten years later we met him and took his picture. -Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin. Photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin were recently commissioned to return to their homeland of South Africa to document life there 10 years after the end of apartheid. For three months they traversed the country, examining the way people live, how they work, how they love, and how they die. Through their work we learn of individuals’ aspirations and fears, such as Matapa Maila, a contestant in Miss Teen South Africa who has no memory of apartheid; Mandllenkosi Noqhayi, a circumcision initiate who is studying to become an accountant; and Mishack Masilela, a contestant at the Miss Gay Soweto competition, who wants to be able to marry the man that he loves. Threaded through these personal tales and glimpses of everyday life we gain an understanding of the wider issues facing South Africa today, such as the housing shortage, high unemployment, widespread violent crime, the impact of economic migrants, and, perhaps most significant of all, the widespread effect of the AIDS epidemic. But it is also a story of optimism and empowerment. After 10 years of freedom, South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and the strongest economies in Africa. These photographs were recently displayed in Johannesburg at the new Constitutional Court, built on the site of The Fort, the infamous jail used by the apartheid government to imprison activists such as Ghandi and Mandela.
"Mr. Mkhize has been photographed twice before in his life. The first was for his Pass Book, which allowed the apartheid government to control his movements. The second was for his identity Book, which allowed him to vote in the first democratic elections in 1994. Ten years later, we took his picture for no official reason." Thus begins this unassuming volume from the same photographers that released last years' award-winning Ghetto (Cat# PI127H). The title, Mr. Mkhize's portrait, is a lead-in to a photographic cross-section of South African society. For example, there are portraits of Pinni and Oom, a homeless couple that live on Nugget Street in downtown Johannesburg, and General Woody Nel and his wife, from the white Cape Town suburb of Rondebosch. Each individual, each couple is accompanied by their story in their own words. Photographs of the cities and neighborhoods are interspersed, simply, quietly. The cumulative effect of the words and text is huge. Broomberg and Chanarin place an underlying faith in their subjects, and what comes across is a overwhelmingly poignant account of humanity in a racially charged and troubled part of the globe.

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