Aperture Checked

Photos: My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

mich — Fri, 31 May 2013 04:53:00 GMT

I have just completed my undergrad in photography and am now trying to find my place in the market. I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, with a family that rarely even travels domestically. But i got the travel bug...and the photography bug at that.

Township Series: Part One

mich — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:18:00 GMT

Pieces of broken glass crunched into the sand under my feet as I walked. The air was dusty and smelled of garbage that was for too long neglected and left to rot by the side of the road. The sun is hot, burning my skin even through my clothes. Stray dogs wander through the streets looking for food and companions. This is the Africa that you see in publications like National Geographic and unfortunately it is still a sad reality in some areas of South Africa.

A stray dog wanders the streets in Langa Township.

The Townships were created under apartheid rule and were the places where black and colored people were forced to resettle after they were removed from their homes in Cape Town. These places did not disappear after the ANC took control of the country and many still live here.

Many homes are dilapidated. Others made of found items or metal sheeting placed haphazardly together. Some seem unsuitable to live in, but then you see the eyes of a small child peek through a window and you know that that hovel is still a home.

As soon as the children saw me, they started screaming at the top of their lungs “Umlungu!!! Umlungu!!! WHITE PERSON!!! WHITE PERSON!!!!” White people are a commodity in these parts. White people mean money.

The children held my hands and walked with me, all the while laughing and smiling. They looked at my fancy camera and begged me to take photos of them. I complied. Soon the numbers of children around me grew exponentially as they clamored to have their picture taken and then to see it on the LCD screen. Small hands kept pulling at me in all different directions, each wanting attention, each wanting me.

The poverty here is immense. Yes there is running water, electricity and bathrooms, but the amount and reliability of these vary greatly. Many of the adults work in Cape Town for minimum wage. 20 US dollars could feed a person for a week. 20 US dollars is the equivalent of 160 Rand.

The children then are left to their own devices, even from a young age. Free from the supervision of adults, children start to get in trouble. This escalates until small pranks and indiscretions turn into felonies as they get older.

Not every family is like this though. Most are thrown into this situation due to poverty and it turns into a vicious cycle.

Mama Nosintho was my guide to Tambo Village, a small section of one of the larger townships. She had five children in her family, a husband and a whole extended family to take care of while balancing a job to make ends meet. She was tall and wearing a light blue cotton dress the first time that I met her. Her hair was put in dreads that reached her shoulders. She was a bit rounder after having five children but was still in shape. Her eyes were a dark grey and framed by light freckles on her cheeks. She had deep dimples that emerged whenever she smiled, which was often.

If you have never seen this type of poverty before, it really unsettles you. Forget the poverty that you see in the United States. Though those cases are hard to bear witness to, the miles of shacks in the sandy Cape Flats will amaze you. It will make you think of how all that you take for granted in the US would be a godsend to many people.A view of Table Mountain from Langa Township. Langa is one of the closest townships to the mountain because during apartheid rule, the africans who resided there had the lightest skin and those who had lighter skin were placed closer to town and the mountain. People with darker skin were placed further away from the mountain.

Of course not everyone has this epiphany while visiting a township. The townships also serve as a tourist area where people ride in on minibuses, “ooh” and “ahhh” at the spectacle of poverty and return to their five-star hotels to have prawns and lobster for dinner

It’s not fair, but nobody said life was.

…To be continued

My Scholarship entry - Seeing the world through other eyes

mich — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:55:00 GMT

“We need more paper,” Sango said as he balled paper around small rocks.
“Here!” yelled Sipho.
Making a soccer ball takes a lot of work. Finding the paper and rocks is easy. Compacting the paper around the rocks is hard and especially in the hands of a ten and a five year old. When a ball shape is formed, it is rolled tightly in saran wrap so it will not unfurl while being kicked.
“It's done,” announced Sango.

The boys had never been to the stadium in Cape Town, but lived in sight of Table Mountain. They had watched several of the World Cup games on TV but had never seen the game live. Life in a township does not often allow for such luxuries.

The game was dusty. Dirt kicked up by the players hung in the hot air and slowly drifted downwards. A car marked one goal, a pile of rocks the other. You don’t need anything official to play in a township.
The players converged near one goal. They turned into a frenzy of arms and legs trying to chase after the ball.
Goal.
Score one for the home team. A goal for Sango.
The game restarted in the center. The saran wrap had a few tears in it but the ball was holding together.
The away team came back with a vengeance. The ball batted back and forth, then flew and slipped passed the goalie.
It was a tied game.
Sango called a timeout.
“We need to win,” he pleaded, “this is our home. We can’t lose to them.”
The game resumed. The ball, now even more tattered, was starting to lose the protective saran wrap. The game wasn’t played by the amount of time on the field, but on how long the ball lasted.
It didn’t look good for the home team. With every kick the paper started losing shape. Sipho rushed the ball towards the goal. Blocked by a defender, he passed to Sango. He kicked the tattered ball hard, it flew past the goal line and exploded on the car.
The game was won. High on their victory the boys paraded around the neighborhood singing and shouting. In a township soccer is not just a game, it is a staple of life.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

mich — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:57:37 GMT

These photos are from a trip to Japan. This was the first time I left the United States, the first time I left New England and most importantly the first time I discovered a passion for photography. I worked two summer jobs in order to pay for this trip and for a new camera (a canon eos rebel xti) and to date it has been one of the best experiences in my life. At the time I went on this trip I was trying to decide what major to apply for and I had no idea. I loved traveling around a foreign country, camera in hand and asked myself "wouldn't this be cool if I could do this for a job?" I'm now a photography major, specializing in photojournalism and one day that will be my job. It took a trip to Japan for me to realize what I wanted to do with my life and I'm now sharing these photos in hope that this can inspire someone else. Go into the world, explore it and you won't regret it.