Johannesburg's trolley pullers double lives: most of them have dwellings in the township, so that when their loved ones visit, these guys don’t have to reveal their day-to-day living conditions.
I’ve been working on a series about Johannesburg trolley pullers for a decade now. One day, it just so happened that I was coming from Fordsburg into town and I bumped into this guy pulling a heavily laden trolley. I followed him from President Street up until the city library, photographing him from the back.It goes all the way back to the days of Newtown when there used to be an old building where homeless people lived. They later moved to the Nelson Mandela Bridge, before the park was built.
It was then that I discovered their double lives: most of them have dwellings in the township, so that when their loved ones visit, these guys don’t have to reveal their day-to-day living conditions. Their lives are just like those of people with regular nine-to-five jobs. They cook, they worry about their safety, they watch football at the nearest bars, they have radios, they keep up to date with what is happening in the country, they read the papers. They just live in poor shelter.When I began following this particular guy, I was interested in the mannequin he had collected.
Sometimes when you shoot in town you can anticipate people’s movements, stay ahead of them and get a particular shot. These are things that come with the experience of shooting in town where there can be many variables. I try to make sure that wherever I am, my camera settings are right for that location and my film is fully loaded. This allows me to make sure that when the time is right, I am clear and not shaky.
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