What is the future of street photography?
- Text by Jackie Higgins
- Photography by Essop Twins
Within the confines of the city, residents are compelled to live in relatively close proximity and therefore, issues of inequality can become strikingly apparent. The desire to document injustices – whether between races, sexes or social strata – is perhaps particularly noticeable on the African continent.
Yto Barrada and A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project
‘Le Détroit, Avenue d’Espagne’, Tangier, Morocco, 2000 by Yto Barrada, from A Life Full of Holes: The Strait Project, 1999–2003. Courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/Hamburg.
The Moroccan artist considers the impact of the Shengen Area on her hometown of Tangier. Created in 1995, it restricts African access to Europe and has turned the Strait of Gibraltar into a Berlin Wall. Thousands of people each year try to cross it, some die trying, and Tangier has become the gateway, or in Barrada’s words, “the jumping off point of a thousand hopes.” In this series, she moves beyond traditional documentary by presenting snapshots of quotidian street scenes that resonate with symbolic significance. So in ‘Le Détroit, Avenue d’Espagne’, the empty expanse of tarmac facing the model ship hints at the expanse of sea that separates Morocco from Europe: the Strait.
Graeme Williams and A City Refracted
From A City Refracted by Graeme Williams, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2012–14
Williams explores how the once wealthy, white-only inner city of Johannesburg has changed after the end of Apartheid. The whites fled and now it is full of immigrants from all over Africa. “Certain districts and apartment blocks are now dominated by Nigerians, Ghanaians, Somalis, and immigrants from all over Africa,” he says. A City Refracted is a stark reminder of how not simply Johannesburg, but the whole country has failed to socially integrate; Williams concludes, “It refutes the dream of the Rainbow Nation.”
The Essop Twins
Essop Twins - ’Azaan’, Cape Town, South Africa, 2008
Hasan and Husain Essop were born and bred in Cape Town and raised as devout Muslims. Their work explores issues of identity, and specifically what it means to be an Islamic youth living in a secular society in Cape Town. They stage themselves for the camera, taking multiple exposures, which they then superimpose in complex digital compositions. They explain, “This is how we see the clash between east and west, which exists simultaneously in our bodies. It’s our struggle.”
Jackie Higgins is the author of The World Atlas of Street Photography, published by Thames & Hudson.
Check out Part 2: Europe – Voyeurism And Surveillance.
Latest on Huck
Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers
The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.
Written by: Sam Haddad
Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help
Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.
Written by: Ciaran Thapar
Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series
True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.
Written by: Huck
A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces
Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco
A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.
Written by: Tony Njoku
