Bonani Africa Online Exhibition 2010

Mads Norgaard

The Terminus

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The Cape Town bus terminus is a place of flux. It is the core point for workers into the city and out to the suburbs on a daily basis. Hundreds, if not thousands, of commuters travel from Cape Town's townships and suburbs to the city. Peak hour traffic extends travelling time, forcing people to travel in the early hours of the morning to arrive at work on time. They arrive in the city before the full light of day breaks, catching the bus home, again, only after dark.

The atmosphere at dawn and in the hours before the intense activity of the day, is one of an eerie, empty darkness, coming alive with commuters who have only this limited transit time to relax, to read their papers and to contemplate. The long hours of a day’s work drags by. Dusk approaches and again the busses are filled with weary commuters departing for home, causing a recurring cycle each and every day. This photo essay documents these hours.

About Mads Norgaard

Mads Norgaard, born in Denmark in 1987, is a photographer educated and living in South Africa. Mads has integrated himself into South African life and works as a freelance documentary photographer. While studying his National Diploma in Photography at CityVarsity, where he emerged top of his class.

Whether he is documenting the opening of parliament or the night train to Khayelitsha, the inevitable awkwardness that comes from having a foreigner in one's space, is circumvented by the relationship building Mads does before even introducing his camera.

This relationship does not always end after the photograph is taken. As in the case of Joining Hands Street Committee in Tafelsig, Mitchell's Plain. Mads used the photographs from the work done in the area to build a homepage. This lead to sponsorship and investment in the children and neighbourhood of the two streets in Tafelsig. Mads is still actively involved in the project - www.streetcommittee.org.

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