deBuren

© Sophie Smith

The exhibition ‘Waiting and watching: South African moments’ depicts the photographical works of four young women in South-Africa. The photos are taken in 2009 during their last year of Photojournalism with Harold Gess at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South-Africa. Their work portrays the life and faces of people who normally go through life without being noticed.  

Sarah Schäfer followed a watchmaker and explored the concept ‘time’ in the little town Bedford. Lindsay Callaghan’s work includes a series of portraits of street vendors in Grahamstown and Demelza Bush’s work documents the life of ‘Oubaas’, a retired cop of the Robben Island Police, who lives in a converted garage of a black family in Bedford, Oostkaap. Sophie Smith explored the theme ‘poverty’ by watching the life of a man called ‘Rooiland’ (look at the picture above), who is a familiar sight in the streets of Grahamstown with his wheelbarrow.

Sophie Smith: Rooiland
Sophie Smith (°1988, London, South-Africa) is based in Grahamstown, South-Africa, where she studied photojournalism for four years at Rhodes University. Sophie’s work appeared in many national and local publications and exhibitions. Apart from working as a freelance photographer, she currently also lectures Photojournalism at the Rhodes University herself. At deBuren she presents the photographic story about a man called Rooiland. Rooiland is an imposing 77-year-old man with dreadlocks and dressed in old, dirty clothes. Rooiland is also a man of many stories about his live and the past. Although Rooiland is a man of means, he has decided to live from the bare minimum nature and his cows offer him, out of fear of envious neighbours and grabby thieves. Smith’s pictures tell the story of Rooiland with compassion and kindness, but at the same time also depict the raw reality of his life.

Sarah Schäfer: A Meditation on Time
After graduating in Photojournalism at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Sarah Schäfer (°1986, Johannesburg) has been working as a freelance photographer, writer and editor in Cape Town, South-Africa. She has been published in several magazines and is currently taking part in the production of three books, as well as producing content for multimedia websites and blogs. In the photo essay titled A Meditation on Time included in this exhibition, she intimately portrays the life and work of the Anthony Mauer, a horologist in Bedford in the Eastern Cape. His working space is exactly like it was in the sixties and the routine of his days are like an “old cardigan – not unattractive, definitely not exciting, maybe with a few holes, but it is the most comfortable thing you own, which is why you will never throw it away.” In this series Sarah Schäfer tries to capture the elusive essence of the concept of ‘time’ and expands on the irony of our obsession with it.

Lindsay Callaghan: The Beaufort Street Traders
Lindsay Callaghan (°1988) is a photographer and author from Cape Town, South-Africa. After her bachelor Photojournalism at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown, she worked as a part-time photographer at Crocott’s Mail. Currently she works at the environmental media and events company Alive2green. Her work The Beaufort Street Traders included in the exhibition presents a series of portraits of waiting street vendors in Beaufort Street in Grahamstown. The street begins at the rich part of town and circles into the poor surrounding neighbourhoods. Although the street vendors hardly make enough money to make ends meet, they do not actively try sell their ware to the passing crowd. They sit and wait, until a buyer addresses them.

Demelza Bush: Oubaas
Demelza Bush (°1986, Pretoria) works as a photographer and filmmaker for Mail & Guardian Online in Johannesburg, South-Africa, where she covers political and social issues. In 2009 she got her bachelor degree in Television- and Photojournalism at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Before completing her studies, she received the SABC Young Journalist of the Year Award for the documentary Food Crisis in 2008. In her series of photographs included in this exhibition, she portrays the 79-year-old, retired prison warden William James Everton, also known as ‘Oubaas’. Through a series of intimate portraits she brazenly puts out the question whether there is room for our elders in our fast changing society. Oubaas lives alone in a garage of the Plaatjie family in Bedford. Despite the difference in age, background and history, Oubaas and inspector Notiti Plaatjie and her family are very fond of each other. The photos shape a beautiful stilled image of loneliness, acceptance and friendship.

This project is supported by EUNIC in Brussels, in collaboration with the Beursschouwburg