Notes

In 2004, Mikhael Subotzky embarked on a photographic project documenting prison life in South Africa for his final-year portfolio at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. A year later he exhibited the project, entitled Die Vier Hoeke, at a one-day event held at Pollsmoor Prison on Freedom Day (April 27). That same year he began work on Umjiegwana, a related project focussing on the hardships encountered by former prisoners integrating into society. This photograph portrays two former convicts, known only as Daniel and Joe, building a shelter on vacant ground near Russell Street, Zonnebloem, formerly District Six. City officials later razed the structure. The relationship between life inside and outside prison is an important hallmark of Subotzky’s earliest two projects. “Perceptions of South Africa’s crime culture are already extremely negative due to media hysteria,” he explained in 2007. “I try to tell stories which fill in some of the gaps behind the headlines.” 1 He rejected claims that his work was simply about prison and prisoners: “It was always about how the prison system relates to the broader South African social and historical landscape.”

1. Sean O’Toole, Filling in the gaps behind the headlines, FOAM No. 12, 2007, page 22.