Advertisement
Mikhael Subotzky was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1981 and is currently based in Johannesburg. In 2004 he graduated from the University of Cape Town, and his final-year project, ‘Die Vier Hoeke’ (which translates literally as ‘The Four Corners’), won him widespread international acclaim. The series was part of an in-depth study of the South African prison system, which led him to run workshops within the prisons, to teach inmates the basics of photographic theory and practice. The results of these workshops can be found on his website.
His work offers an amazing insight into the underbelly of life within the South African prison system. It shows prisoners not as inmates or criminals, but as human beings, living within a sub-culture that represents the unknown. We witness the moment that “Jonny Fortune climbs out of the industrial washer after taking a bath in the laundry … (because) he dislikes the communal showers”, instead choosing to use his time on shift to bathe.
These images show us the ‘norm’ for a prisoner within this community. Which of us would choose to bathe in an industrial washer? The photographs represent a society that has created its own set of cultures and traditions within an institutionalised environment.
We see what appears to be prolific drug use in a prison community that is extremely over-crowded and under-funded, and the use of strip-searches enforced to counter this. We watch as inmates perform “pasvang”, scrubbing the prison floors in rhythm to the song that they are singing – an activity which was performed on slave ships which arrived in South Africa during the 17th Century.
Most importantly, we see documentation of an overcrowded, and what must feel like, an overbearing situation for a community which is paying the price for wide-spread poverty and crime. Like many before him, Subotzky is providing the viewer, and the people of South Africa, a window into moments we are not meant to witness; and by doing so, a unique insight into the lives of the ‘other’.
You can see more work from Mikhael Subotzky at his portfolio here.
