So, I went to Ferguson for a few days and agreed to share my observations with this outlet. They ran this piece:Nowhere in the conversation did I “blast” police. I am not the…
Portraits taken by South African photographer Thabiso Sekgala.
Based on the, system of homelands (from which the series takes its name) created by the apartheid government, Homeland is what Sekgala describes as a “culmination of an exploration of memory, place and interrelated self-imaging”.
Intrigued by the feeling of ‘belonging’ linked to these geographic areas constructed by the apartheid government, Sekgala photographed peripheral communities - especially youth, in the former KwaNdebele and Bophuthatswan homelands to visually document the fading and abandonment of these landscapes.
With the creation of a new South Africa, both geographically and socially speaking, homelands no longer have the same relevance they did during apartheid. As people begin permanently migrating away from these areas, issues arise that explore the marginal integration of these societies into a larger national culture.
As part of a post-Apartheid photography generation, Sekgala is interested in making connections to his own past, memory and questions of belonging.
"She removes her wig, her eyelashes, her makeup, never breaking eye contact with the reflection of her natural self. It’s an intimate, powerful moment television doesn’t often show: A black woman removing all the elements white supremacy tells her she has to wear to be beautiful, successful, powerful." (x)
Everything we know about VonDerrit Myers Jr.
