Photographing desires and actuality in a suburb of Johannesburg
On the outskirts of Johannesburg is Daleside, a small industrial suburb mainly inhabited by Africans. Here, the mother of the photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa had a job as a domestic servant and also a place that was closed to him as a child. "I had the feeling that this place took a lot from me, my mother was the first," he tells us. This means that he has had unresolved feelings and a deep curiosity about Daleside and its people for years. "I was denied access to a paradise that seems like paradise to me," he says, "and for me, returning to Daleside as a photographer and an adult was a confrontation with those feelings." What he encountered was not what he expected.
Sobekwa, who comes from the nearby municipality of Thokoza, has teamed up with French photographer Cyprien Clément-Delmas to document Daleside as part of a joint photo project. The two met in 2012 when Clément-Delmas was invited by the Rubis Mécénat Foundation to teach photography in Thokoza. The program evolved into Of Soul and Joy, a series of photography workshops for young people developed by Clément-Delmas and Magnum photographer Bieke Depoorter.
Above: Geraldine and her husband in their new home, Daleside, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2019 © Lindokuhle Sobekwa / Magnum Photos; above: © Cyprien Clément-Delmas. All images courtesy of the artist and Rubis Mécénat
“Lindokuhle Sobekwa was part of this first workshop,” recalls Clément-Delmas. “He was 16 years old at the time and had never touched a camera before. That's how we got to know each other. “Sobekwa has since become a Magnum Photos nominee, had his work published both locally and in international stores like Vice, and contributed to Wellcome's latest photography project that examined mental health during the pandemic.
“Over the years we became friends and took pictures together in the community. One day he suggested exploring an African neighborhood nearby, ”says Clément-Delmas about the impetus for the project. When they arrived in Daleside in 2015 to start the project, he and Sobekwa were immediately impressed by the “dry streets”, the little “dilapidated houses” and of course the people they encountered.
All images © Cyprien Clément-Delmas
The couple returned to photograph the area in the years that followed, and together they built a work that serves as a study of class and struggle – one that appeals to both this island community and, more generally, whole sections of society that remain Behind. Clément-Delmas says he feels that the people of Daleside “dream of a better, different life” but that “their reality wakes them up all the time. They are static dreamers stuck in this city, in their life and in their social class. "
When they arrived in Daleside, the two photographers were initially taken with concern by the residents. “We really supported each other in this,” says Clément-Delmas. "We felt more and more together, especially at the beginning when people wouldn't allow us to photograph them. It took us time to gain people's trust."
Jordens and Naiden's friend Bossman is chilling in front of the Burns house. Daleside, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2016 © Lindokuhle Sobekwa / Magnum Photos
The photographers knew that the community wouldn't automatically open up to them and had to find other ways to build trust, explains Sobekwa. "One was to stand in a local supermarket and ask people to take their photos and we would return their prints." Steps like this one or Sobekwa, who showed residents an album of the photos he took, helped bring them closer. "We were slowly building some relationships and people in Daleside were comfortable with us," he adds. They received invitations to take photos of family events and gave prints to the people who photographed them to display at home. This had a lasting effect on Sobekwa's attitude as a picture maker: “That motivated me as a photographer to see my work and to be appreciated by the people who photographed you. "
The trust that the two photographers have won paved the way for an intimate, no-frills look into people's homes and private lives, as well as pages with remarkable portraits that range between pride and vulnerability. Young people in particular embody the tension between dreams and reality, perhaps best illustrated by Sobekwa's portrait of teenagers lounging and smoking while another works in the background – an image that echoes Sally Mann's 1989 painting , Candy Cigarette, contains.
Front and back of Daleside: Static Dreams
The photographs form the basis of a new book, Daleside: Static Dreams, published by Gost, which brings together these opposing visions of dreams and reality in the community. The photographs are presented side by side in two fold-out books bound in an envelope. This allows people to process the images individually or in pairs and emphasize the tension between the two perspectives of Daleside, although both photographers largely depict the same people and spaces.
However, the questioning of these topics extends beyond the imagery to the process behind it. Clément-Delmas' experience as a white man in Daleside was decidedly different from that of Sobekwa. Although Clément-Delmas was from France, he was seen as an insider by the community as he witnessed how Sobekwa was largely different even though he lived a few kilometers away: “It (says) a lot about the work that is still going on in one do is divided land. "
Farm workers with their bosses child in a local supermarket, Daleside, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2019 © Lindokuhle Sobekwa / Magnum Photos
Mangu, who works as a gardener and lives in Daleside, a once wealthy African community south of Johannesburg. Daleside, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2016 © Lindokuhle Sobekwa / Magnum Photos
When Sobekwa realized that the Daleside community was grappling with similar problems and systems as the rest of South Africa, he was able to empathize with the residents to some extent. “But there were also differences that made it difficult for me to relate to them,” he says.
He encountered firsthand the realities of life in a nation where oppression and legacies of racism can still be felt. "Daleside was an emotional place for me," says Sobekwa. “As much as I could relate to certain things based on their social systems in my own community, I was still black, I was often mistaken for someone looking for a job or a criminal and the need to always validate I was exhausted by my existence, but some families welcomed me with warm hands and taught me about the place and its history. "
© Cyprien Clément-Delmas
Daleside: Static Dreams by Cyprien Clément-Delmas and Lindokuhle Sobekwa is published by Gost Books in collaboration with Rubis Mécénat. gostbooks.com