Sydelle Willow Smith

Answers On A Postcard — Next up in our Answers On A Postcard series, a visual q&a where photographers answer questions with their images, is South African documentary photographer Sydelle Willow Smith.

To celebrate Huck 46: The Documentary Photography Special II, our annual celebration of visual storytelling, we are having a Huck website takeover – Shoot Your World – dedicated to the personal stories behind the photographs we love.

In this regular series, Answers On A Postcard, we ask photographers to get existential and respond to a visual q&a with their images. Sydelle Willow Smith’s own search for identity guides her lens. The South African photographer was born in Johannesburg and is now based in Cape Town, while working on a Masters degree in African Studies through Oxford University. Sydelle brings her training in Social Anthropology to her photography and explores the multiple layers of identity that we construct around ourselves.

Answers On A Postcard #6

Who are you?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-1

Sydelle Willow Smith.

What does home feel like?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-2

Wherever I have made it.

What does faith look like?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-3

Ephemeral beauty.

What’s your greatest fear?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-4

The habit of setting impossible expectations for myself.

What keeps you up at night?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-5

Waking from wild dreams in the darkest hours of the night.

What helps you sleep?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-6

Quiet neighbours.

What’s the meaning of life?

Sydelle-Willow-Smith-Huck-7

The life-long quest for a lasting sense of inner calm.

Find out more about Sydelle Willow Smith.


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