peripheral vision

photography by Kate Wilhelm

I began with a question: What does (post-Apartheid) transformation look like? Before Apartheid, Cape Town was the least segregated city in South Africa. Post-Apartheid, it is the most segregated city in the country. The segregation that Apartheid and the Group Areas Act created has been largely maintained by Cape Town's real estate market. But transformation is happening in Woodstock, a suburb of light industry and modest homes close to Cape Town's downtown. Adjacent to District Six, it came through the forced removals under the Group Areas Act relatively unscathed.


At the same time as I was working on this project, I was becoming disillusioned with Cape Town. Since my first trip there in 2005, I'd harboured a fantasy of one day living there. I realize now my first two trips were the honeymoon phase of a love affair; this trip was the morning after. Now where will I spend my happy days?