I Declare I Am Here

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Cross border trucking company manager Nelson Chilambo takes a moment for himself while posing for a portrait on his way to work, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018

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William Wilson and Benjamin Lancaster founded Price candle making company, E.Price and Company in Battersea, United Kingdom in 1830. In 1910 a factory in Newtown, Johannesburg was built. Johannesburg's infrastructure grew around it and today it is nestled under a flyover of the M1 highway, periodically splashed with graffiti, still churning out candles. At the turn of the 20th century, Newtown was known as "The Brickfields" as it was rich in clay and brick. Close to the railway line, it attracted immigrants from all over the world. The suburb has been through a period of stagnation and degeneration. In the past few years a number of initiatives have been adopted to reverse these trends. Installation of closed-circuit TV, the upgrading of existing buildings and public open spaces and commissioned street art have turned Newtown into a vibrant cultural precinct

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Lehlohonolo Mfazwe ( Lucky) makes a dramatic entrance on a metal trolly he uses for transporting recyclables in an underpass of the M1 highway next to an informal settlement of tin and plastic shacks called Bekezela, where he lives. The underpass is part of a network of transportation that has it beginnings in 1948, the year the National Party gained power in South Africa and began enforcing policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that is called apartheid, pushing people of colour out of the city and into areas called townships. Twenty five years after the end of apartheid, nearly one-third of employment-age South Africans are without jobs and inequality remains rife. Mfazwe is one of over 100 000 people who live on the streets of Johannesburg. Mfazwe’s dream is to see self employed recyclers have contracts with the city and to have laws to protect them. “Working alone, most of us get bumped by cars on our way to work and we die."

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Dancer/Performance artist Xolisile Ngubane , Maboneng, Johannesburg September 24, 2016 (Heritage Day)

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Prisca Mpofu trips though litter and pools of fetid water on her way to Rock of Victory, a Nigerian church in the inner city suburb of Newtown.Like many suburbs in Johannesburg the area has been through a period of stagnation and degeneration. Gritty urban palimpsests are the passing backdrops against which the people of the city declare themselves. In Johannesburg, with its vibrant graffiti and street art, peeling walls, brut concrete pillars and flyovers, littered pavements and potholed streets, dreams are dreamt, lost and found. "The church means everything to me" she says

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Nombuso Pearl Sibiya, a worker at a Simba chip factory in Cleveland, heads off for a shopping trip in the inner city, making her way through a maze of underpasses created by concrete pillars propping up the highway that were created before and during Apartheid. Fantastical street art, and gritty urban palimpsests are the passing backdrops against which the people of the city declare themselves, their stances and sartorial choices echoing patterns in the urban fabric. Traditional dress and Chinese takeout fashion combine, reflecting the hybrid identities and personal creativity of random passers-by going about their everyday business.

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Mpho Makwa, a high school student from Benoni who hails from Lesotho, caught the train to the inner city suburb of Braamfontein to celebrate Heritage Day. Makwa says that some of his friends take their fashion inspiration from Tokyo streetwear but he says is "inspired by his own fashion and celebrates Heritage Day in his own different way." Makwa says that his grandmother taught him how to sew and that the jacket he is wearing is a blanket she gave him and which he made into a top. Heritage Day is a South African public holiday created after the end of Apartheid on which South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their culture and diversity. As people from myriad different nations stream in and out of Johannesburg along its network of highways and railways, South Africa battles with ongoing xenophobic violence against immigrants and wrestles with questions of borders and belonging – who decides who can enter the country? Who decides who can work and stay??

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Hendrik Luthuli, an inner city hairdresser passes an artwork by South African artist Sonny on the side of a building in a derelict square on his way to Johannesburg Park Station, the central railway station in the city of Johannesburg, and the largest railway station in Africa. The name "Braamfontein" dates from 1853, when the area was a farm. Close to the railway line, it attracted immigrants from all over the world. Today it is a business hub containing many multi-storied buildings representing various architectural styles including Art Deco and Brutalist. After the abolition of apartheid, the area became neglected but intervention by both the city of Johannesburg and large corporate business, initiated a process of urban renewal. Against the backdrop of the inner city’s ageing architecture significant shifts in the nature of street life occurs monthly. Just as new cultures are displacing the old, so one graffiti mural overpaints another. Braamfontein.Johannesburg 28 January 2018

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Rebecca Dunge, an unemployed domestic worker, en route to taking an ironing board to her daughter, says she feels proud to be a South African on Heritage Day, a public holiday where citizens are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation "that belongs to all its people." The street art behind her depicts Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) who was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who founded Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). Historian Richard A. McFarlane has described Rhodes "as integral a participant in southern African and British imperial history as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln are in their respective eras in United States history." City and Suburban, Johannesburg, Heritage Day, 24 September 2017

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Volkan Eren and Lelo Mndaba pass vibrant street art while seeing the sights of the city. In local tradition, the indigenous protea ( the South Africa's national flower since 1976. ) pictured behind them represents change and hope. The couple met online. He is from Serbia and she is from Knysna in the Eastern Cape. Eren says that he read about how good the weather was in South Africa and decided to " flee the cold of Serbia. I love it so much I want to move here!” he says.City and Suburban, Johannesburg, South Africa 2018

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Ruth Moyo and her daughter Angel, Jeppestown, Johannesburg, 8 April 2018 “I was born in Zimbabwe. I am unemployed but would like to be a businesswoman’

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Londiwe Dhlamini and Kutwane, Maboneng, Johannesburg. 24 September 2017 (Heritage Day) Londiwe Dhlamini and her daughter Kutwane wearing traditional Ndebele dress and Kutwane in traditional Tswana dress because her father is Tswana, pass graffiti by South African artist Tapz on their way to a social event on Heritage Day, one of the South African public holidays created after 1994 where everyone is encouraged to celebrate their culture. Many of the public holidays created in South Africa were established in response to particular moments in the country’s history – Heritage Day, Youth Day (commemorating the June 16 massacre when protesting Soweto schoolchildren were killed by apartheid police), Human Rights Day, Freedom Day (commemorating the day Nelson Mandela cast his first vote after spending 27 years in prison) to name a few. In the city, everyone dresses up for Heritage Day, and seeking out unexpected matches between the streets the people who pass along them, the desire was to transmit a sense of the vitality and radical changeability of Johannesburg’s street life.

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Tasneem Malick and Amina Sanusi, Maboneng, Johannesburg, South Africa, 5 May 2018 “We are from Malawi and came here 7 months ago to look for work. I want to study and be a doctor." Exhibited in 2019 as part of a group exhibition On Main Road Constitution Hill, Braamfontein,Johannesburg,South Africa

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Senzo Ndlovu, a poet and actor, poses for a photograph next to a flyover splashed with graffiti in in Maboneng, an area with previously derelict factories and warehouses that have been turned into a cultural precinct that the BBC describes as "an incredible example of urban regeneration." Traditional dress and Chinese takeout fashion combine, reflecting the hybrid identities and personal creativity of random passers-by going about their everyday business. As people from myriad different nations stream in and out of Johannesburg along its network of highways and railways, South Africa wrestles with questions of borders and belonging – who decides who can enter the country? Who decides who belongs? Who decides who can work and who can stay? Like Johannesburg’s transient street art that is periodically erased, the people who come and go from these same streets navigate architectures etched with memory as they search of work, food, culture and love.

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Anna Mangwegape on her way to a shopping mall, Henry Nxumalo Street, Newtown , Johannesburg 31 March 2018 (Human Rights Day )

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Mbalenhle Gxuda who is studying for a teaching degree at the University of Johannesburg, picks her way through broken pavements and discarded building material on an early morning walk to buy airtime at a local shop. “I am in my pyjamas because the shop is 5 minutes away but I also go out in my sleepwear in the evening. “she says. People walking the streets in sleepwear is a fairly common sight in the inner city, where many people live in apartment blocks where there are few gardens and many view the streets as an extension of their living spaces. Louis Botha Avenue was named in 1917 after the prime minister and Boer-War general and unlike other streets has not yet been renamed to better reflect the country’s African heritage. The roadway originates as far back as 1876 as a wagon track connecting the farms in Johannesburg with the capital Pretoria. After the end of Apartheid in 1994, the city’s oldest suburbs become sites of radical, ongoing change, often alternating between states of decay and renewal.

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Ellen Bennie, an attendant at The Workers Museum pictured in an underpass of the M1 highway en route to a shopping mall in Newtown on Freedom Day, a public holiday in South Africa commemorating the day Nelson Mandela cast his first vote on 27 April 1994 after spending 27 years in prison. These first non-racial elections were one of the most momentous events in the history of South Africa as everyone of voting age over 18 from any race group could vote. Previously, non-whites had only limited rights to vote while indigenous black South Africans had no vote.South Africa has numerous public holidays, many established in response to particular moments in the country’s history – Heritage Day, Youth Day (commemorating the June 16 massacre when protesting Soweto school children were killed by apartheid police), Human Rights Day and Day of Reconciliation. Each of these public holidays holds different meanings for Johannesburg’s varied communities and intersecting cultural enclaves, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018

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Nkosana Mokoena a recycler who was born in Thembisa township, in an underpass of the M2 highway next to an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) election poster, City and Suburban, Johannesburg, South Africa. 13 November 2016 CAPTION The inner city is home to more than 100 000 people, many of them migrants from around Africa, some of whom shelter in the city’s underpasses. Johannesburg's highways are part of a network of transportation that has it beginnings in 1948, the year the National Party gained power in South Africa and began using architecture to enforce policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that is called apartheid, pushing people of colour out of the city and into areas called townships. .

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Juliette Wachsmuth, Art, Education, Sociology student, “I live in Germany and am visiting South Africa for the first time. I love Johannesburg !”, Maboneng, Johannesburg, South Africa 8 April 2018

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Angel Mtolo contemplating the xenophobic riots that almost destroyed her shop, Jules Street, Malvern, 24 September 2019 (Heritage Day) "I am South African, originally from Port Shepstone, married to a Nigerian. I own a clothing shop that sells Nigerian clothing. During the xenophobic riots crowds from the Zulu Hostel tried to break into my shop but I managed to save my stock from looters. Every day people walk past my shop and threaten ' Sizobuya',( We will come back). It makes me sad, it very hard to invest in this country.” Hostels in South Africa were built around 1912, and were meant to accommodate workers who had moved to cities to work in mines. The riots took place in 2019, the year that South Africa celebrated 25 years of democracy. Rolling electricity blackouts, high crime rates and rising unemployment have reacted and given rise to waves of violent protest and episodes of lawlessness, such as the xenophobic violence that erupted in September.