What was paradise?

Travelling through the USA these past two weeks down the historic route 66 has been an eye opener too the world that was, the iconic United States of America. Off the main I-40 highway lies a huge refuge of old Cars, Motels and gas stations. This journey has given us the time (Shaun & I) to travel this historic route and its side roads (which we sometimes end up on some evenings and chatting on the roof of the RV under the stars) inch by inch. With that in mind, I have realised that these places where once thriving towns with people commuting in and out of them. In the late 1960's when the I-40 highway was completed, traffic now bypassed alot of these old towns which intern turned the tap on their economic main vein. It seems people packed their suitcases and left immediately, leaving ghost towns behind.

Even in the towns where people still coincide there is a feeling of quietness,
where people once drove now people fly,
where once there was natural resources now there is a hole in the ground.

We have now left the Texas Panhandle and are heading up to Sant Fe' in New Mexico where we will spend the weekend.

Today people trawl this historic route to see the relics of yester year. In my next blog update I will post some more on the people that I have met along the route.


CT 2011

A wheel chair inside a military surplus store in Amarillo Texas.

Jeff showing me his beard which is now half its length, we will see more of him in later blog updates.

On the side of the service road for the Interstate 40 Shaun & I find another abandoned flea market and gas station. 

Yes, An abandoned boat in a corn field. The Texas Pandhandle.

The Historic Route 66 border into New Mexico. 

An old year book (1980) inside an abandoned motel on the Historic Ruote 66. We later met the son of the original owners he keeps everything as original as possible and feels very negatively about selling it all, I like him more when he tells me this. 

This made me imagine a scene in a 1950's post apocalyptic move. 

Shaun fooling around in the abandoned boat we found.

Afropolitans - V&A London (24th June 2011)

I will be showing some of my up and coming exhibition S'Phara Phara which will open at the Resolution Gallery on the 20th August, when I get back from the USA.

Showing will be a preview of the printed show plus some the video which was featured in Colors magazine last year when I was on residency at Fabrica in Italy. My new S'Phara video which will be installed at the exhibition will also be shown at the event.

Check out http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/afropolitans-24-june-2011/ for more info on the event and let me know how it goes if you do go!



CT 2011 (Deep in the USA)

WAY TO FAR AWAY

So I've hit the road once again. Im in the midwest of the United States of America documenting a guy called Jon Beeby who is attempting to walk across the expansive country. 

I arrived in Oklahoma city after 32 Hours via Dubai and LAX and have been on the road since for 3 days in windy farmlands west of Oklahoma City. Living in a RV and hanging out with my partner in Photographic / Film crime Shaun Stander who I studied photography with in South Africa. 

So far the stereotypical setting has amazed me, with everything you ever imagined and seen on movies been real in the vast country. Hicks with drawls, cars that guzzle down gas (including our very own Ford V8 RV) and Walmarts every 40 Miles, not to mention the weirdest and friendliest folk I have ever laid eyes upon. Its been tough getting over the jet lag and learning how to live like a gypsy, I always liked to joke in the past about how I feel like a photographic gypsy at the moment, with no real roots anywhere, I guess this is a dream come true.

I will be putting up constant installments as our journey progresses slowly but surely. 

To read more about Jon's epic journey and the charity he is doing it for TAG please visit his site at www.steptoofar.com now! 

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Our home on the road, the gas guzzling Ford V8 RV. Its super cramped with four on board. Myself, Shaun, Jon and Helen.

On my first night while waiting for Shaun, we watched the sunrise in one of the many budget strip malls outside Oklahoma City. 

Most of our journey lines up with the historic ruote 66, made famous by Jack Kerouac and Easy Rider. We have now deviated slightly though and are heading down some very desolate parts of the countryside. I love the signs on the side of the road everywhere you go. 

Not gonna happen.  In Jon's words, there is nothing you could pay me to live here!

Everything is about big food here. The more the better and BBQ is a local specialty! 

We hit a town called Corn in Oklahoma city today, nothing but nothingness, wind and churches.  Oh did I mention wind. 

When doing a trip like this we come across a ton of roadkill. 

My good friend and partner on this trip Shaun Stander who I studied photography with back in the day! 

It never ends, one straight line of endless road. 

The Arch Magazine Fashion (June 2011)

Finally I can release some new Fashion Editorial work. This was shot for the Arch magazine, Melrose Arch's publication. It was styled by Jenny Andrews, Make up and hair by Liz van der Merwe and the model is the beautiful Kirsty from Star Models Johannesburg. 

You can check out the magazine online at www.thearch.co.za

CT 2011

Gazelle Music Video.

Today I went out with my good Colleague's from Gazelle and we shot their new music video for a collaboration track called 'Speak Up', which they have been performing live.

The video is a secret but for now here are some shots from the shoot.

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A Portrait of Lara.

Here is a shot from a recent shoot of mine with young actress Lara Lipshitz shot backstage at the Wits theater in Johannesburg.

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Dazed Digital: Lagos Party: Africa's new Music Stars Video.

Last year I shot at the MTV Mama awards with Dazed and Confused's Rod Stanley. Finally the video part of our project is up and live on the Dazed Digital website.

Check it out. Below is the text from Dazed Digital, written by Rod Stanley.

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Cabo Snoop in the area.

Last year while on shoot with Dazed & Confused in Lagos, shooting the MTV Mama awards I got to meet some pretty spectacular performers from around the African continent. One of them was a Kuduro dancer / musician called Cabo Snoop. He was one of the highlights on our journey and when I heard he was going to be in Johannesburg on tour, I jumped on the idea of doing a street shoot with Cabo, his manager Ho-Chi Fu and a crew of dancers from Angola.

It was a sentimental time too, as the last time I had photographed Cabo Snoop and he was with Ho-Chi Fu's brother who dies in a tragic car accident a month ago which involved the whole group and 3 members died.

On the shoot we hit the streets near Main Street Life and had some fun. The guys are humble, well dressed and ever willing to perform for the camera. Big ups to Cabo Snoop.

Cabo Snoop.

Ho-Chi Fu, the owner of Powehouse records. He runs the label like a military operation. He is the general and Cabo Snoop is the Captain.

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Beauty.

I have been doing a massive recci for a landfill location for the new Frown music video. Shot this while on a site in the South of Johannesburg called 'Waste Giant', problem is, I need a giant Landfill site but this didn't really cut it. Hope I can make it work though. 

CT 2011

Myer Taub / Goethe on Main / Florence

Did a shoot recently for Myer Taub documenting and creating a video installation instead of images of his performance piece, 'Florence'. Myer and I met at the infecting the city festival earlier this year where he had made a 'mad' treasure hunt through Cape Town CBD. I ended up completely hungover on the last day of the festival in an under ground pipe which linked Vredehoek and the Cape Town fort, the tunnel was infested with Cockroaches.

On that note, please be introduced to his next master piece, 'Forence'. It was a pleasure working with an amazing mind and great director as well as actor.

I have posted some of the images shot while on the video shoot. They should give you a small idea of the characters and the basic performance.

Below is a write up from the Goethe Institute website introducing the performance:

"Myer Taub's Florence began as an exploratory, performance project and an experimental intervention in 2010 at the Joubert Park and Johannesburg Art Gallery spaces. As a performance project now realised at Goethe on Main, the work continues to draw heavily on the life of the founder of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Florence Phillips, drawing links between these contemporary inner city art spaces, marginality and re-imagined historical narratives. 

Taub explains that, ‘The project intends to create a thematic presentation based upon the juxtaposition of marginality and materialism. In doing so this intervention-based performance become a particular kind of method that excavates historical and genealogical fragments so as to reassemble them into an eventual dramatic narrative framed around the notions of the outsider. The Goethe Project Space becomes a presented space, meaning it becomes an imaginary space, embodied and dressed and theatricalised as ‘Florence’ – the imagined other city in relation to Johannesburg.’

Myer Taub recently completed his doctorate in Drama at the University of Cape Town and, subsequently, was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Johannesburg.

The performances start at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and end at GoetheonMain - the audience relies on own vehicles to get from the first to the second venue."

Enjoy.

CT 2011

Cuss Monthly - Dirty Paraffin.

I recently got the chance to shoot Dirty Parafin, a successful Johannesburg new wave Kwaito group for online magazine Cuss Monthly. Here is a little sneak peak into what we got up to. There is also a 2 min video which I am editing to go with it.

CT 2011

Kenya Pt 1. Obama Fever

For the past two weeks I have been based out of Nairobi Kenya. I was up shooting a project for COLE ACP who are part of the European Commission. They help farmers to lift the quality of their food and teach them better farming techniques, lifting them to a standard which can be exported. They assist through the whole agriculture industry and have made a fast difference.

While their I spent a ton of time on different farms, from smallholders to Organic. While on a farm called Sunripe I came across one of the pesticide sprayers wearing a pink Obama shirt. Ominous and fashionable. In Kenya they have total Obama fever, so this was one of the few items I got to capture while on the trip. Some went by so fast, I saw a bus with Michelle Obama we love you written on the back and I bought some Kenyan fabric with his portrait printed onto it too. Amazing, he has inspired so many people in Kenya and even if he isn't getting the support in his own country he will always have Kenya.

Robot Ahead. A collaborative exhibition. Justin McGee and Chris Saunders.

Recently I was approached by the Salon/Locale  to set up a small exhibition in Cape Town. They are a organisition from Amsterdam that set up fashioned themed exhibitions around the world in major cities. They started in Amsterdam where they decided to give people a more interesting alternative to Fashion Week which in Amsterdam.

Justin McGee is a photographer I have always admired. He is brave, willing and street. We hit the streets of Johannesburg together to shoot, Robot Ahead.

The exhibition is on display in furniture designer Gregor Jenkins studio at 84 Shortmarket Street Cape Town and will be so till the end of March.

Read below to get the jist of it:

ROBOT AHEAD
A series of street portraits of the amazing people of Johannesburg       

by Chris Saunders & Justin McGee

Robot ahead’s title is inspired by a sign which you see when entering the city of Johannesburg from the South end coming into Doornfontein into the CBD toward Hillbrow from the M2 highway, I like to refer to it as the ‘Welcome To Johannesburg Sign,’ but instead it is a relic from the Apartheid era, with its Afrikaans, ‘Robot Voor,’ above. Living abroad for the last year also made the fact that we call traffic lights robots very odd and made the sign even more humorous and local. For me the sign epitomises the city and its image, that of business without pleasure, commercial art and big brand fashion culture. A 9 to 5’rs paradise with little to offer as a street culture.

Justin and I are both photographers who have spent tons of our time documenting the streets of the inner city of Johannesburg. We wanted to show the beauty in the street culture breaking the stereotypical view point and creating a new and attractive series showing the city for its best asset, the people. The people of Johannesburg CBD are friendly, approachable and very real.

We decided that the best way to do this would be to walk from one side of the city to the other and shoot a series of street portraits over a period of a couple of hours, showing how easy it is to come across amazing people and scenes. Johannesburg is such a badly documented city, it is feared not embraced. We want to show that the people of the city are good and something to be enamored, not ignored.

All Prints are available as limited editions of 2 prints per image and will be re-printed on Archival Cotton Rag in Johannesburg and shipped unframed to buyer.

Prints cost R4500 (A1 Unframed Print Size on Archival Matte Paper) and Exhibition AP which will not be sold and kept by artist.

CT 2011