My first trip out to South Africa is booked for March 25th. I’ll be in Cape Town til the 5th, when Josh joins me, then we’ll be road tripping it North to Jo’Burg and flying back from there on the 19th. We’ve got two little projects planned, the first is a series of portraits of young footballers, taken as we travel from South to North. The format of these images will remain the same; posed on the halfway line of a football pitch, the idea being that the portraits also act as landscapes, and the landscape will change as we travel. Rineke Dijkstra’s beach portraits (below) are a big inspiration for this.
Rineke Dijkstra - Coney Island NY, USA, 1993
Our second plan is to make another series of portraits, this time all within the bounds of one stadium, focusing on the people who work there. The stadium acting as a microcosm of South African society, from labourers and minimum wage workers to senior managers and directors.
So if anyone has any links/contacts/suggestions that might help with either of these projects, please get in touch (eg. if you know of a soccer school, or someone who works in football somehow). In fact if anyone has any links/contacts/suggestions that might be of interest to us, even if not related to either of these projects, give me a shout! We dont want to restrict ourselves to these 2 ideas, so we’re interested in anything that might give us some insight in to the current climate in South Africa, and if its related to football or the world cup (negative or positive), even better.
Yo Claire and Emile
Here’s numbers for Mandla Lande
+27216940411 or +27826871520
He’s the most reliable member of Amampondo, like I said they played in the opening concert (Nelson Mandela’s favourite band). They’re all football fanatics and they’re based in Langa Township (the oldest township) Capetown.
Just say to Mandla that you got his number from Dick (the cameraman) and that you’d like to hook up with them all, Emile will be very safe with them.
Have a good un.
Bofana Bofana
Best wishes
Dick
PS. Claire I hope I’ve got the correct e mail for your friend if not just forward it on X