Beneath the Surface – Photographs by Steve Bloom
SOUTH AFRICA IN THE SEVENTIES
In 1976, Sam Nzima’s photograph of twelve year old Hector Peterson’s limp body being carried through the streets of Soweto spread around the world. The government of the time had created a new law which stipulated that black children must be taught in Afrikaans. School children took to the streets and many died in the uprising that followed; Hector Peterson was among the first.During the 1970s I worked for Nasionale Tydskrifte, who printed many of South Africa’s top fashion magazines, and employed mixed-race people who were obliged to enter the building through a separate doorway. I felt discomforted by the unearned rights assured by my white skin. I spent my weekends out in the streets with my 35mm camera looking for something, I never quite knew what: a confrontation with that particular time and place, an antidote to my working world of seamless commercial images. I explored areas I would not normally be tempted to visit. With no formal training, I approached the project as a fresh-faced amateur.On my way home from work each day I passed a group of bergies, homeless street dwellers. Many were addicted to methylated spirits, cheap industrial alcohol that causes blindness and shortens life expectancy. Bergies were regarded as invisible by most people, stepped around, avoided at all costs. I photographed them, some very directly, trying to capture their sense of hopelessness. I visited Crossroads squatter camp, where thousands of families had set up home in defiance of the Group Areas Actforbidding migrant workers from living with their families near the big cities. During the day, when labourers were in the city, the authorities routinely demolished homes and terrorised the population.Photographs help shape our memories and insight into events, but it is impossible to escape the agenda of the photographer with an individual story to tell. I sought to capture a sense of alienation that may well have been a reflection of my own estrangement from the society in which I lived.
SLIDE SHOW
