My Africa - Self Portrait.

Having lived in a rural setting for about 12 years, I moved back into the city and while walking the streets of my neighbourhood was intrigued by my image reflected in the windows of the houses I passed. It struck me that this reflection would only be visible in an urban setting. This was the inspiration for my project — a combined self-portrait and a neighbourhood portrait. My research on the area revealed that in “1958 An enormous road construction project was started, including Table Bay Boulevard, Settlers Way, Eastern Boulevard, Liesbeeck Parkway and Black River Parkway.” These are the roads that lead to the outer neighbourhoods surrounding Cape Town central and allowed for the development of the area. It also means the age of the houses is similar to my own. The images in My Africa - Self Portrait reveal an Africa very different from the stereotype which usually includes wildlife, poverty or nameless traditional people who some photographers and tourists seem to view in the same light as the wildlife. It is important to me as a proud African to counter these stereotypes. From a distance these homes seem quite uniform but on closer inspection the differences become apparent and I decided that the monochrome process is best suited to reveal these differences in a beautiful range of tones, textures and dynamic patterns without the distraction of colour.