I will make separate trips to South Africa before, during and after the Football World Cup in 2010, conducting interviews and making photographs. I will use the event, and football in general, as a backdrop for the project, which will be an exploration of the social, political, cultural and economic condition of South Africa. My intention is to use the World Cup as an entry point, a means of making contacts from which engaging threads will emerge.
The project will in part be a celebration of football as a unifier, with the potential to bring racially divided communities together; whilst also investigating the claims that staging an event of this magnitude will invigorate a struggling economy. Central to this is the very concept of the World Cup, a transitory and ephemeral spectacle; arriving in a new country every 4 years with a wave of euphoria and expectation.
I see the World Cup in 2010 as the continuation of a turbulent relationship, between South Africa and England, the birthplace of football. As someone with both South African and English heritage, this relationship will largely define my perspective. It will be one of the main threads running through the project. I will examine this in both South Africa and England.
This will be a research led project and I intend to delve into archives in England and South Africa for both written and visual inspiration. “Mini-projects” will spring from these periods of research, as well as from what I see and experience. My research and background will mean I approach the project with certain ideas, but I intend to be as flexible as possible, and am looking forward to any misconceptions I have being challenged. Above all, it will be a process of discovery.
The foundation of this project, as with all of my work, will be a suspicious regard for the notion of “photographic truth”. I intend to approach each mini project differently, employing various modes of representation and always looking to expand on, and deviate from, the typical visual language of documentary. Text will be an important element, I will be playing with ways that the written word can reflect my own, as well as my subjects’, experience and influence the reading of the images. I will also be working alongside another photographer, Josh Lustig, for at least some of the mini-projects, which will mean we are constantly challenging each other’s assumptions, ideas and visions.
I will write more detailed statements for each mini-project
