The journey home from school

Making our way home from school is a simple, nostalgic, universal activity. I am collaborating with young people in The Cape Flats in SA. They face the threat of crossfire daily as they take this journey. We share cameras and techniques to tell this story

Making our way home from school is a simple, nostalgic, universal activity we can all relate to. This daily commute has its own set of challenges in South Africa- a country with the greatest social divide and largest growing youth population in the world.

Young people move along the asphalt, considering invisible boundaries which bring the very real and consistent threat of death by crossfire. This body of work explores the journey home from school for adolescents in the Cape Flats,Cape Town, where the omnipresent threats of gang culture pervade.

I am working within the areas of Manenberg, Lavender Hill, Vrygrond, Ahtlone, Heideveld,Bridgetown, Langa and Mitchells Plain.

Rather than solely documenting their experiences, I have chosen to truly collaborate with young people to make images through sharing my camera and hosting low fi analog workshops. This shared approach produced images and material which offer a rare insight into their confusing and challenging world of adolescence from a first person perspective

That silky blue

That soft light

Who will we see?

The red painted corner shop .

Snacks , clusters of friends .

A tornado tore through Manenberg once,.

The pastor, hands in pockets rocking on his heels

The bendy fence behind the church where the boys lean and pass around cigarettes.

He can’t cross the road or he will be shot.

Shadows from clean washing dance across the court floor.

She bends down to observe a yellow daising bursting through the cement.

The police van stands stationery - red and blue lights pulsing.