Few first-time tourists to Cape Town have much idea of what the quality of life might be inside the shantytowns made from rusty corrugated iron that line the highway from the airport. The drab exteriors give little hint of the resourceful and creative energy the owners have put into decorating the interiors. A wooden framework usually forms the support for an exterior of corrugated iron. The interior is typically made of stiff cardboard sheeting, which for extra insulation and beauty will often be pasted over with printers’ overruns—magazine covers, cat food labels, posters advertising brandy. The residents approach with zeal the task of making the interior of their dwellings as comfortable and cheerful as possible.
It is this spirit of fortitude, pride, and resilience that is conveyed so forcefully and expressively in the portraits of residents of one of these informal settlements, Mbekweni, not far from Cape Town, by photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa in an ongoing series that he began in 1999.
There is no sense of the stolen moment in Mthethwa’s portraits. Each is a careful collaboration with the sitter, who chooses how to sit and gazes with full seriousness into the camera. Exhibited in museum shows around the world, the series on Mbekweni is a remarkable extended portrait of a particular community.
Photography was not the career Mthethwa visualized for himself as a boy. As a top high school matriculant, he started to study medicine at the University of Zululand but realized within the first six months that it was not the right career choice for him. Laughing in astonishment at a career advisor’s suggestion that he consider switching to art after the advisor had spotted a sketch Mthethwa had made, Mthethwa eventually took his advice.
Informal art classes led to a portfolio submission to the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. His application to Michaelis was made in 1980, at a time when white universities needed special ministerial permission to accept black students. In his application Mthethwa emphasized his wish to study photography—a subject not offered at black art schools—so he needed to attend Michaelis. Thus his path was indicated for him.
Mthethwa often makes an analogy between the work of a doctor, his first career choice, and that of a photographer. For the marginalized, impoverished shantytown community, accustomed to being treated as if they have no rights, the existence of Mthethwa’s photos are part of a healing process. The artist observes that each time the subject of a successful portrait looks at the image again, he feels a sense of pride and recreates the pleasant, soothing emotions experienced when he saw the photograph for the first time
Untitled 1996
179 x 241 cm
Color photograph
Image courtesy of the artist and the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
© Zwelethu Mthethwa
Untitled 2002
Unpublished image
© Zwelethu Mthethwa
Untitled 2002
45 x 61 cm
Lambda print
Image courtesy of Editions for ArtThrob
© Zwelethu Mthethwa
Untitled 2001
179 x 241 cm
C-print
Image courtesy of the artist and the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
© Zwelethu Mthethwa