Pretty rough edges

Sing a Unhappy Tune, Clocolan, Free State, 2019. Marieta Groenewald cares for forgotten road kids – ‘punished by being born right into a life that they didn’t ask for’ – at Lethoteng Neighborhood Centre. I look down to seek out tears on my Canon’s viewfinder. I ask the title of the little woman singing within the photograph. Marieta’s reply takes me to the place unhappiness and hopelessness dwell. ‘The woman’s title is Hlompe. It means “respect” in Sesotho.’

The ATM, Girl Gray, 2018. Brummer Avenue on this Japanese Cape city has misplaced its ‘r’; an artist or delinquent painted the letter out, so it reads Bummer Avenue. I parked my bakkie in Bummer and dangled my arm out of the window in order that my shoulders sagged with the burden on my head. Throughout the road was an FNB ATM. I do know that I shouldn’t be, however I’m ashamed of all that I’ve, though it’s really little or no. If solely I can drink all of the bottles of unhappiness in me. Get pissed, get excessive, fly, jet away to Oberammergau.

Subsequent to me, within the window seat, sat Sister Helen Kagendo, a Kenyan member of the Catholic Missionaries of Charity. She wore the blue and white of Mom Teresa and gave me a bit image of her to maintain. Upon touchdown she blessed me with one remaining smile and we parted methods without end.

‘You haven’t gained till you sink the black’, Cape City, 2005. A parody image for Snicker It Off, spoofing Carling Black Label’s advert that references the black ball in snooker. With Photoshop not but obtainable, the shot meant burying a Zulu buddy as much as his chest, with a crate of quarts on his shoulder. This was achieved in entrance of a well-liked shebeen whereas locals chanted, ‘One beer, one black.’