Soweto

Last October, I was on a working gig in South Africa. My friend Steve and I were able to visit Soweto but we could only spend a few hours there because of our schedule. Soweto is an amazing organic sprawl, a self-contained megalopolis of corrugated metal and dirt. The line between documentation and exploitation is very fine and as rich as the imagery was there, I chose to take only a few photos. I was able to speak enough Zulu to make people laugh at me which helped break the ice, but many spoke English or Afrikaans so it was easy enough to communicate.

Steve and I had a great lunch there, in one of the upscale neighborhoods in the hills: oxtail soup and pap. I can still remember sitting there looking at the empty bowl, clutching the spoon, wishing for just one more scoop.