Between Dogs and Wolves

The book "Between Dogs and Wolves" by Jodi Bieber has provided me with some incredible documentary photography. It is insightful. Bieber's photography shows a completely different world from what I am used to here in New Zealand.
The photography is all shot in South Africa and is aimed mostly at young poor people.

I have been inspired as to how graphic the snapshots of life [and death] are. they capture a snippet of life that is completely foreign to me.


In my next project I am to illustrate time. I have been thinking of doing this through age. Jodi Bieber redefines our concept of age in the following pictures.
These images challenge our understanding of ideas of the appropriate age.

Although the captions accompanying these images may be fairly long winded, they give a lot of insight into the meaning of the images.

"Tebugo is a child prostitute working on the streets of Johannesburg. When she was fourteen a man from her hometown of KwaZulu-Natal promised to put her through school in Jo'burg. When they arrived in the city, he said she would have to make money by selling her body on the streets - 'I charge R50 for a black man and R150 for a white one. We use condoms and I have blood tests at the local clinic. My family doesn't know I am here. They think I am at school. I would like to go back to school, so I can be a lawyer one day and fight for our rights.'"

"... When Bradley, her youngest son (7), gets angry he responds with a knife; behaviour learn in the streets is brought back home. The only way Lynette seems to know how to discipline her children is with a  leather belt. Her son Wardlen (11), once stabbed her. Many women are left alone to care for and discipline their children, as their husbands are either in jail, on the run from the law or have been killed through gang violence. Lynette has pleaded with the Welfare Department to take her kids away from Westbury, as she believes it is not a suitable place for children to grow up in. However, life goes on..."

"'There is not a kid around six who can't tell you about a gun. My kid is 5; I take my gun home, remove the magazine and give it to him to play with. He must get used to it. He is the only man in the house; he will be the breadwinner. It is not to say that I want him to be a gangster, but he must be gun-wise because guns can be dangerous, even in your own house.' - Fast Gun member."

"We tend to believe that sexual abusers are strangers, yet they are generally people close to the child. The Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, has a Kid's court Support Group aimed at empowering child witnesses who will have to testify in court. They are given emotional support, and taught about the court process and the skills to deal with it, through puppetry."

Captions by Jodi Bieber from the book Between Dogs and Wolves, Growing up with South Africa




The interesting thing about these photographs is that there is a feeling of a loss of innocence in the people captured. We seem to think of our childhood and teenage years as carefree and innocent but for people in other parts of the world they must deal with violence, rape, neglect, death, loss of loved ones, and countless other traumas. 

I don't wish to portray a loss of innocence in regards to age, instead I wish to capture age in a static image that is not only beautiful, but also honest.

The images that I can produce will be very different to Jodi Bieber's images but they will be beautiful and honest.