Photowalk: Fietas and surrounds

Naeem and I spent last Saturday morning footing in Fietas with Darren Smith and Gus Silber for a photowalk through one of Johannesburg’s most interesting and textured areas.

I used to live in a commune not far from where we were shooting.

Krause street and De la Rey were part of my daily commute and even though I was taken by the decaying facades admired through anti-smash&grab car-window tinting, I just didn’t gather enough fortitude at the time to see these structures up close.

But there’s always guts in numbers.

The four of us started off at the 23rd Street mosque, walked down towards the De la Rey street subway linking Pageview to Fordsburg and ended at the in desuetude Jajbhay Memorial school.

The De la Rey street subway mural is a recent installation and tells the story of a community who were uprooted yet who also celebrated, worshiped and hoped for a time when the spectre of Apartheid would shrink away.

De la Rey street subway mural
De la Rey street subway mural
De la Rey street subway mural
23rd Street Mosque, Fietas

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saaleha

I am a writer and photographer (look up my work on www.shootcake.com) based in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have an MA in Creative Writing from the university currently known as Rhodes. My writing accolades include winning the 2014 Writivism Short Story Prize and the 2020 Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize for my debut collection, Zikr.

7 thoughts on “Photowalk: Fietas and surrounds”

  3. Very cool. It’s not something you do very often. I’m gonna do a photowalk through my city, all the places I frequented when we used to bunk high school. just cos.

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  4. good stuff Saaleha, it’s been ages since I went out for to just take pictures. i’m renting a nice lens this weekend and taking my nephews to the Natural History Museum on Monday so looking forward to exercising my trigger finger

    Reply

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