Mr Mkhize's Portrait

Mr. Mkhize's Portrait and other stories from the New South Africa. Mr. Mkhize has only been photographed twice before in his life. The first was for his pass book, a document which the Apartheid Government used to control his movements, the second was for his ID book, that allowed him to vote in the first democratic election in 1994. Earlier this year Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin met him at his home in Madala Hostel in Alexandra township and took his portrait.

Talking about his life he said: "I came here when I was a boy. You left home and came to the city to look for work. I lived alone in this hostel. Alone with 400 other men, eight of us in a room together. It was dangerous in those days. The football field outside was often covered in blood. There was a war between many of the locals and many of us that came from far away. It's different now. My wife lives with me for the first time in our married life."

The struggles in South Africa have usually been photographed and witnessed on a very public, and therefore spectacular, scale, however Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarins' project was a very personal voyage, as they returned to work in their homeland after a long absence. Over the past few months they have met and photographed a wide range of people and places across the country from Xhoi bushmen, Jewish old-age pensioners, cadets in police-training camps and prison inmates.

Originally they were commissioned by the South African Government to record the stories of individuals who had taken cases to the new Constitutional Court. Enshrined in the constitution is the sanctity of the individual's human rights and everyone has the right to take their case to the highest court in the land. Although they set out to record specific stories of those that had benefited from this, the project soon developed into a broader look at individuals' lives.

For Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, who have worked together for a number of years, the photograph is just the end product of an exchange between them and the sitters. They use a large format camera, so it takes time to set up the portrait, allowing the sitters to talk about their lives, aspirations and fears. Their comments, which appear as text next to the images in the exhibition, become an integral part of the work.

We hear from the younger generation in South Africa, who have little memory of life 10 years before, such as Matapa Mayla, a contestant in Miss Teen South Africa, who wants to be materially successful and work for BMW. Mishack Masilela, a Miss Gay Soweto contestant, wished to be open about his sexuality and to marry the man he loves. Tessa Davis, a female boxer at Eldorado Park, reveals the tragic effects of being raped at a young age and how it has alienated her from her family. For the young dentistry student Mandlenkosi Noqhayi it is important to continue old rituals by being a circumcision initiate, despite a lack of understanding from many of his urban peers.

Threaded through these portraits and glimpses of everyday life we gain an understanding of the wider issues facing South Africa today. The need for housing and jobs and the problems of widespread violent crime, the impact of economic migration from neighbouring African countries and, perhaps most significant of all, the widespread effect of the Aids epidemic. Brought together the work explores the complex nature of life in South Africa at such a critical and important time in the country's history.

About Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin are a photographic team based in London. They met in Wuppetal, a mission town in the Western Cape of South Africa and have been friends ever since. They started taking photographs together because they only had one camera. That was seven years ago. Since then the duo have been busy.

After publishing their first book, Trust - a photographic monograph that accompanied their solo show at the Hasselblad Centre in Sweden - they were charged with the task of re-launching Benetton's Colors Magazine. As the editors and principle photographers they spent three years in the job. The result was a second book, GHETTO, which is a photographic study of 12 closed communities around the world for which they received the prestigious Vic Oden Award from the Royal Society of Photographers in Great Britain.

Last year Broomberg and Chanarin embarked on a new project. They were commissioned by the South African Government to produce a photographic document of contemporary South Africa ten years after the end of Apartheid. They returned to their homeland and for three months traversed the country, talking to people and collecting stories about South Africa's transition to democracy. The result is a book, Mr. Mkhize's Portrait, published to coincide with their solo exhibition at the Photographers Gallery in London. While in South Africa they also made their first documentary film for Channel Four.

Broomberg and Chanarin have exhibited their work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The British National Museum of Photograph, The Africana Museum in Johannesburg, the Florence Photographic Biennale and the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Their photographs are also part of the Victoria and Albert Museum permanent collection.

The duo are regularly contributors to the Observer Magazine in London and teach workshops in photography.

Contact