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In July, I wrote about The Children of South Africa, a documentary book project that Luca Zordan had just begun. Luca has already produced a huge amount of material for the book since then, some of which he’s posted at his website. It’s joyous, uplifting work, and the cause is unassailable. Proceeds from the book, which is scheduled to be released in 2010 to commemorate the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup, will go to MaAfrika Tikkun, an NGO focused on nurturing kids from birth to the age of 19. MaAfrika Tikkun plans to use the money to create after-school soccer and sports programs for disadvantaged children in four local townships. (Luca is working on The Children of South Africa with producer Alethea Gold, his collaborator on The Children of China book and exhibition.)
Luca is about to return to South Africa for another round of photography, so I decided to catch up with him before he left to find out how the project is going so far and the people he has met along the way. He explained that it was in the most dangerous townships that he witnessed the broadest levels of volunteering and charity. People helped each other however they could, even if it was just offering their time once a week to read a book to a child. In Soweto, Luca met Enos Mafokate, who was the first black stadium jumper in South Africa in the 1960s and ’70s. Enos, who is now in his 60s, was able to cobble together some land and build stables where he teaches kids his sport. The motto of his Soweto Equestrian Foundation: “Sport. Welfare. Skills.” You can visit his website here.
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At the Soweto Equestrian Foundation. All photographs by Luca Zordan.
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Luca also told me about a British woman named Rosemary Nalden who moved to Soweto 10 years ago to teach kids how to play violin. As a violinist for the English Academy of Music, she’d had an impressive career, the kind that people don’t usually give up. But she moved to Soweto and started an organization to help kids find their way through music, despite the fact that in Soweto at the time, studying to be a classical musician was hardly a typical path. She started with just a shack, but through her dedication and through donations, she now has a teaching center—the Buskaid Soweto String Project—and her students give concerts throughout South Africa. Two of her students were recently accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in London. “She is so precise, so dedicated,” says Luca. “50 to 60 percent of the children that come there are without parents because of HIV.”
Luca has also documented Dreamfields soccer events, in which kids are bused to a playing field for an event, but they’re not told what the event is. When they get to the field, explains Luca, “in front of them is a large bag, and inside is what’s necessary to play soccer: jersey, pants, socks, shoes, shields. From 9 AM to 3 PM, they play round-robin soccer. They have medals and music and food. These are poor children from poor neighborhoods and schools—you see children playing without socks. We went to a rugby game, and kids were there with bare feet.” He adds, “If you could see their face when they open the bag…” (The Dreamfields Project was established by journalist John Perlman. There’s a recent podcast with him, as well as a transcript of the interview, here.)
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The Dreamfields Project.
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If you go to Luca’s website, you’ll find a series of portraits he did of schoolchildren, all of them wearing the gray sweater that is part of their uniform. The school, in northeast South Africa, near the border of Botswana, is in a state of disrepair, and basic resources are appallingly scarce. The children cannot take their textbooks home; the principal has to store them in his office because he has no replacements if they are damaged or lost. Luca decided to photograph each of the 160 children, arranging them in a line and snapping three frames each. Each of the kids left with a 4×6 print for themselves and their parents.
Because Nikon is sponsoring his project, Luca also arranged to distribute point-and-shoot digital cameras to the children he photographs for his project so that they can document their lives. “We’re going to collect the images and try to put the images in the book with a story about him or her,” Luca explains. In this particular school, Luca gave a boy named Poifo a camera. Poifo’s mother had died giving birth to him, and his father died of AIDS. He lives with his uncle and sister. But those tragedies are not what you see on his face, at least not in Luca’s portrait. You see an apple-cheeked boy with a warm, bright grin.
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This is Poifo.
And this is his school.
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“The way the kids interpreted the uniform and how they posed for the photos was so different from each other,” Luca notes. “It’s interesting to see how they react to the camera. Sometimes they smile, and sometimes they show sadness, loneliness.”
I’m looking forward to keeping you updated on The Children of South Africa. In the meantime, I hope you’ll stop by Luca’s website and explore this powerful project in progress.
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