peripheral vision

Only two days left in Cape Town, and then back to Canada. From facebook, it looks like people at home enjoyed a lovely spring weekend, while we melted here. It’s been seriously, oppressively hot. I try not to complain, coming from the land of snow and ice and all, but even long-time Capetonians are complaining. (Which reminds me, one of the servers at a restaurant we ate at a week or so ago was shocked to hear that parts of Canada also get oppressively hot and humid in the summer. He seriously thought it was cold and icy all yea-round.)

So I’ve been working on my project, which is about Woodstock, an area of light industry and modest homes quite close to the central business district. I suppose the project isn’t so much about Woodstock, as it is situated in Woodstock, and perhaps about the things that draw me in in Woodstock. Many people have told me that Woodstock is seriously dangerous, and others, who live and work in Woodstock have told me it’s completely safe. But they all agree that it would be crazy for me to walk around with my camera by myself. So I don’t. I’ve had wonderful help from people. I find the South African idea of safety fascinating. I suspect that Woodstock IS safe by South African standards, and the people who say it’s not just haven’t been in a while. There’s a lot of work been happening there to clean up the place and get rid of the drug dealers in the last several years, and there’s lots of new and cool development happening there.

But of course, I’ve found I’m just not that into the new development. I’m more interested in encountering regular people and their daily lives, and the bits of graffiti, both good and bad. I came with an idea of what I wanted to photograph, but as usual, that’s not necessarily what I end up photographing. I’m not too sure yet how the project will end up. I think I’ll need time and distance from which to reflect and figure it out. This morning I’m heading back for my last time.

We leave late tomorrow night.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 2:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.