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19 May 2020

PHOTOGRAPHING TAVERNS’: THE Q & A THEMBINKOSI HLATSWAYO & RUTH MOTAU

‘PHOTOGRAPHING TAVERNS’: THE Q & A THEMBINKOSI HLATSWAYO & RUTH MOTAU[spacer height=”40px”] Thembinkosi Hlatswayo (b.1993) and Ruth Motau (b.1968) pose questions to one another about their respective experiences as photographers who developed work within ‘tavern’ or ‘shebeen’ contexts. Motau is a veteran South African photojournalist, who as a woman during the 1990s, ventured into Dobsonville Hostel, open to see where her camera would take her, only to discover a shebeen. Hlatswayo is of a younger generation and approached shebeens from […]

19 May 2020

ALONE TOGETHER

[spacer height=”20px”] One of my life goals and dreams was always mixing my love of photography with traveling. I’ve worked on that, day after day and year after year and finally the dream comes true but then I have to face a new reality, ‘no pain no gain’, my chance of travelling means getting away from my comfort zone – my family. I powered through, with my camera on board, no matter what the difficulties would be then suddenly… Everything […]

19 May 2020

Survival

[spacer height=”20px”] Stay at home and stay safe, Save lives by social distancing. Knock!! Knock!! Knock!! Who is it? OH NO!! Mama. Are you self-Isolating?? Have you forgotten your Hand-to-Mouth existence??? The man said no work no pay! Kids, No school tomorrow. But Mama the School feeding scheme assisted us! We will make a plan bantabami. Wash your hands regularly, even though you do not have access to clean water. Never mind going for days on power outage, Covid-19 is […]

12 May 2020

A Piece of the Ground

A Piece of Ground is a complication of South African music inspired by Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo’s Slaghuis II.   The selection resonates like a vision of bodies and spirits gathered in the same room, sometimes at odds with each other, yet always held by a shared wound. Assembled at the Slaghuis, the bodies and spirits pray, laugh, scream, cry and shout. As they fix their mouths to speak, so the music begins. 1. A Piece of Ground    Miriam Makeba    Pata Pata, 1967 […]

11 May 2020

Slaghuis II: A Sonic Debrief

Slaghuis II: A Sonic Debrief, is a conversation that highlights sound as a motif. Mosa Anita Kaiser, a content generator for Photoform Africa converses with Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo on the intimate stories and memories that inform ‘Slaghuis’. [spacer height=”1px”] In addition this audio features the full length performance of Slaghuis II: Performing the artist statement, as performed by Chris Djuma. [spacer height=”1px”] The conversation goes further into unpacking symbolisms and references behind this text as told by Hlatshwayo.[spacer height=”1px”] This audio […]