Marcus Garvey - Rastafari Community

On the edge of Cape Town, sandwiched between Khayalitsha and Nyanga is a small -- community. The community is called Marcus Garvey, named for one of the Rastafarian movement’s great inspirations. It is an area where Rastafarians live in peace with one another and perform their religion with virtually no disturbance from outside influence. The people here have been marginalised in many other places, but here they are allowed to grow their hair long into dreadlocks, practice their religious rites, eat within their restrictions and it seems also a blind eye is turned to the growing of Marijuana, which is illegal in South Africa.

The people of the community are cagey to outsiders, but once they let you in show warmth that is hard to find elsewhere. They grow their own produce and work together to create one of the most inspiring of township locations that I have seen to date. Even though there is a large amount of poverty and the living conditions are not ideal here, there seems to be a hope and a light. The story is written all over the people of the community's faces and in seeing their faces juxtaposed with their environment I see their story telling itself.

Metrorail commuters

I spent 3 months in 2009 travelling on the Metrorail train system in and out of Cape Town. During that period I photographed close up portraits of people, where I hoped to capture something of the sentiment of their commute and general feeling that was moving in and out of the city. The environment that comes through in the images is only detectable by the light, and the way that the shutter has captured the movement of it on the subject’s faces.

Each person had a story to tell me as I took their pictures, and my mission was to have their story come through in the images. What interests me is the story that each person tells by just looking into the lens. I shoot with a Hasselblad, and it is a slow process, so each person had the time to settle into their portrait, and so I feel like I was able to capture a certain level of each person at peace. The level of peace displayed in each image varies, because each person has a different level of peace which they inhabit on a daily basis. These images are a portrait not only of individuals, but also of their environment, as it is how they feel in it that I think I was able to capture.