A Place Called Sharpeville

A Place Called Sharpeville is a contemporary photo documentary about one of the most historically rich and significant places in South Africa. My research about Sharpeville revealed that there has not been any substantial body of photographic work that has been produced and published about Sharpeville. Most of the materials available online, in bookstores and libraries about Sharpeville are mainly political and very historical. They refer notably to the 21st March 1960 massacre, the sentencing to death by hanging of The Sharpeville Six in 1984 and Nelson Mandela signing into law the new constitution of the Republic of South Africa on 10 December 1996 at George Thabe Stadium in Sharpeville. The most significant and popular photographs about Sharpeville are those that were taken by Ian Berry on the day of the massacre and by Peter Magubane when the massacred people were being buried. It is this significant lack of the most current photographic material about Sharpeville that has inspired me to document a place where I was born and bred.