Utopia as a perspective:
Reading historical strata
in Guy Tillim’s documentary photo essay Jo’burg series
Intern of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

Miki Kurisu

Utopia as a perspective:
Reading historical strata
in Guy Tillim’s documentary photo essay
Jo’burg series

Miki Kurisu
1. Introduction
This essay examines the Jo’burg series by Guy Tillim (1962-) which represents
a post-apartheid cityscape between 2003 and 2007. Born in Johannesburg in
1962, Guy Tillim started his professional career in 1986 and joined Afrapix,
a collective photo agency strongly engaged with the anti-apartheid movementin South Africa. He also worked for Reuters from 1986 to 1988 and then forAgence France Presse from 1993 to 1994. He has received numerous awards
including Prix SCAM (2002), Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Award(2003), Daimler Chrysler Award for South African photography (2004) andLeica Oskar Barnack Award for his Jo’burg series. In addition, his works were❖1

exhibited in both South Africa and Europe. The Jo’burg series highlights
Tillim’s critical approach to documentary photography in terms of subject
matter, format and the portrayal of people. This series was chosen as an
object of analysis out of other important works by equally significant South
African photographers, such as Ernest Cole (1940-1990), Omar Badsha(1945-), David Goldblatt (1930-) and Santu Mofokeng (1956-) since theJo’burg series enables us to follow the historical development of South African
photography. Here, the utopian theory originally re-conceptualized byGerman Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) and the sociologicalperspective of Ruth Levitas who extended Bloch's concept of utopia is
applied to documentary photography to illustrate the dialectical relationshipbetween photography and society and the Jo'burg series to examine how postapartheid Johannesburg was imagined/represented by Guy Tillim.
First, the concept of utopia and the relation between the concept anddocumentary photography is described. Second, the development of‘documentary photography’ in South Africa during the years of apartheid
regime, approximately from the 1950s to 1990s, is explored to trace how theformal and conceptual style of Guy’s photography have been informed by his
involvement in a collective photojournalists’ association, Afrapix. Third, Tillim’s
critical approach to the history of photography and South Africa as well as themeaning of built environment as social fabric is examined with accounts of thesocial context and historical development of the city of Johannesburg.

104

❖１

For Guy Tillim’s biography refer tohttp://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.
php?id=201&lang=en(Viewed on December 1st, 2013)

This essay seeks to elucidate not only the crucial role which South African
photographers played during the years of anti-apartheid movement but also
the way in which Guy Tillim “questioned, manipulated and revivified its
❖２

❖３

❖４

visual codes and blended them with contemporary concerns, complex andGarb, Tamar (ed.). Figures & Fictions:Contemporary South African Photography.
Göttingen: Steidl, 2011, p.8.

For example, “Utopia/Dystopia: Construction
and Destruction in Photography andCollage” which features photo montage
and collage was held at The Museum ofFine Arts, Houston in 2012. Similarly,
Whitechapel Gallery in London held a groupshow, “The Sprit of Utopia”, in 2013.

Jalving, Camilla. ‘Utopian in the Eye ofthe Beholder: A Theoretical Perspective.’
In Christian Gether. Et al. (eds.), Utopia& Contemporary Art. Exh. cat., Ostfildern:
Hatje Cantz Verlag in association with
Arken Museum of Modern Art, 2012, p.30.

❖2fundamental issues of race, society, gender, identity,” all of which has been asignificant element in forming the subjectivity of photographers today.

2. Utopian Theory
The term of utopia/dystopia is being used with increasing frequency in❖3contemporary art practice. In particular, the concept of utopia propoundedby German philosopher Ernst Bloch, due to its comprehensive principles,
provides us with an “interpretative lens; that is, as a way of reading workand praxis that emphasized the performative and society-changing potential❖4art.” By the same token, it grants us to re-examine not only the dispositionsof documentary photography that aims at social reform, but also the
documentary photographs in the Jo’burg series by Guy Tillim.

❖５❖６

Original title of the book is Libellus vereaureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, deoptimo rei publicae statu, deque nova insula
Utopia.

The term of utopia was introduced by Thomas More (1478-1535) in his❖5book Utopia (1516). More described utopia as ou topos by combining theancient Greek word topos (place) and the prefix u (no) and/or eu (well),Nakamori, Yasufumi, Et al. (eds.). ‘ImaginedWorlds: Dialectical Compositions in
Photography and Collage.’ In Utopia/
Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in
Photography and Collage. Exh. cat., Houston:
Yale University Press in association with theMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2012, p.33.

❖７

Jalving, op. cit., p.30.

❖８Jameson, Fredric. Archeology of the Future:
Desire Called Utopia and Other Science
Fictions. London: Verso, 2005. xi.

which literally means ‘no place’, the place does not exist, and/or ‘place of well❖6

being.’ The concept of utopia has since traveled through various disciplines,
historical periods, and genres, the meaning of the term shifts contingent on❖7

the area of knowledge and praxis. In the context of early twentieth-century
political revolution, utopianism was often conceived by Marxist thinkers as “a❖8driving force of political shift from capitalism to socialism/communism” withthe lack of any conception of agency or political strategy. During the Cold
War, for instance, utopianism was thought of as analogous to Stalinism. In asimilar manner, modernism’s master plans such as Le Corbusier (1887-1965) ’s
rational urban planning projects and Oscar Neimeyer (1907-2012) ’s modernist❖９

Noble, Richard (ed.). ‘Introduction: theUtopian Impulse in Contemporary Art.’ In
Utopias. Exh. cat., Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press in association with the Whitechapel
Gallery, 2009, pp.12-19.

architecture for urban planning of Brasilia met harsh criticism as utopian❖9

idealism that does not have root in any existing social issues. Thus, utopia,
initially regarded as a geographical location, has evolved into “more abstract❖10

concept as a means of seeing, thinking, and acting.”❖１０ Jalving, op. cit., p.30.

Further, Ernst Bloch re-conceptualized utopia as a more comprehensive
principle in his publications The Spirit of Utopia (1921) and three-volume
work The Principal of Hope (1954-1959). For Bloch, utopia is not simply aliterary genre. He maintains that “utopia is the impulse that flows throughany future-oriented expression in our lives, both in society and in culture in❖１1

ibid., p.31.

❖１2

Bloch, Ernst. The Principal of Hope,
Translated by Neville Plaice et al. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1986, p.7; p.12.

general: from daydreams to fairytales, travel accounts, dance, film, theater,❖11

architecture, painting, and poetry.” Countering the Marxist’s concept of
utopia, he contends that utopia is not merely a desire for drastic social change❖12

without considering an existing social condition. Instead, Bloch argues that105‘utopia’ is a more concrete aspiration firmly rooted in an objective realizationof the contradictions in a reality rather than an abstract, radical andunreasonable desire. To put it differently, “utopian impulse” as an expressionof an “anticipatory consciousness,” which is immanent in human nature,derives from man’s capacity to detect issues in our immediate environment,
❖13

❖１3

Levitas, Ruth. ‘Utopian Hope: Ernst Blochand Reclaiming the Future.’ In The Conceptof Utopia. New York and London: Syracuse
University Press, 2009, pp.103-4.

❖１4

ibid., p.88.

❖１5Geo, Daniella. ‘Documentary Photoraphy.’
In Lynne Warren (ed.), Encyclopedia ofTwentieth-Century Photography Volume 1
A-F index. New York: Routledge, 2006,
p.402.

❖１6

Ne whall, Beaumont. ‘Documentar y
Photography.’ In The History of Photography.
Exh. cat., New York: Museum of Modern
Art, 1949, p.235.

❖１7

Kaneko, Ryuichi. ‘How We See the World:
Photography and the Documentary Style.’
In Street Life: Chronicles of Europe by Seven
Photographers. Exh. cat., Tokyo: Bijutsu
Shuppan-Sha, 2011. p.6.

❖１8

ibid.

“the just lived moment,” as a source of inspiration. However, this “anticipatory
consciousness” as an innate part of human nature was rejected by sociologist
Ruth Levitas (1949-), who instead proposed that the “utopian impulse” which❖14

underlies “anticipatory consciousness” is a historical and cultural construct .

3. Photography recognized as a device for social reform
This section explores “anticipatory consciousness” in documentary photography
as well as the dialectical relation between documentary photography andsociety. At the turn of the nineteenth-century photography was sustained in
the service of recording vanishing people, city structures, and cultures in the❖15

face of growing modernization. In 1889, The British Journal of Photographystated that the “comprehensive photographic archive of the world should❖16

be created for its valuable future as documents .” Traditionally considered as
evidence and an instrument of investigation, combined with a growing social
reform movement in the late 1880s, photography was integrated into thesecampaigns as an indispensable element. Significantly, the development ofphotography as a tool for social reform was directly enabled and accelerated by
the invention of the handy camera and half-tone printing technique in the late❖17

1880s. In other words, the camera as a means of expression was democratized,
and individuals were subsequently able to respond to social issues from theirsocial standpoint via photography and publication.
Documentary photography as genre was born when the capacity of❖18

photography gained social recognition as a means for social reform. Social
documentary photography was first pioneered by Jacobs Riis (1849-1914),
who captured the social reality of slums in New York, and Lewis Hine (18741940), who photographed the issues of child labor in Southern America.
This was further developed in the USA during the 1930s under the auspicesof government-sponsored projects as an immediate response to catastrophic❖19

economic downturn in 1929 during the Great Depression. A famous example of❖１9 Warren (ed.), op. cit., p.404.

this is the photographic project by Farm Security Administration, which hired
Walker Evans (1903-1975) and Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Ben Shahn (18981969), Russell Lee (1903-1986) and Arthur Rothstein (1915-1986). In 1936,
Photo League, committed to supporting working-class rights, was formed anddirected by Berenice Abott (1898-1991), Paul Strand (1890-1976), W. Eugene
Smith (1918-1978). Simultaneously, the Netherlands, Belgium and Englandsaw the rise of the worker photography movement with the latter, in particular,
attaining the greatest level of success with the Mass Observation project in the❖20

1930s. Similarly, Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993), in his classic book entitled
The History of Photography, wrote “the most genuine documentary photography

106

❖ 20

ibid., p.406.

❖ 21 Kishi, Tetsuo. ‘Hōdō-shashin no 3tu nonagare.’ In Shashin Journalism. Tokyo:
David-Sha, 1969, pp.42-3.
For original texts, refer to Newhall, op. cit.,
p.246.

features a photographer’s sincere respect towards facts in reality and his/her❖21

aspiration for actively producing an interpretation of the world we reside.”Thus, photographers do not merely apply the camera’s capacity to depict thereal world as a candid image, but rather to prompt human actions and thussocial change. Grounded on a rigorous intention and aspiration for reforming
society and future betterment, it could be suggested that photography became
a constitutive part of shaping and reshaping society.

4. History of journalistic-photography

in South Africa
Developed initially in early twentieth-century America, documentary
photographic techniques, concepts and style have been shared by bothprofessional and amateur photographers worldwide via print media suchas Life and news agencies. More importantly, documentary photographerstirelessly incorporated those elements into each society to achieve theirpolitical and economic ends depending on the socio-political conditions.
Similarly, in struggle for independence in Africa throughout the second❖ 22Firstenberg, Lauri. ‘Postcoloniality,
Performance, and Photographic Portraiture.’
In Okwui Enwezor (ed.), The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movementsin Africa 1945-1994. Exh. cat., Munich:
Prestel, 2001. pp.175-7.

half of twentieth-century, photography was mobilized to counter colonial❖22

propaganda as “a critical tool of resistance,” aspiring for the reshapingof an independent, national identity. Photographers, committed to therevelation movement, appropriated the very device that served to justify
colonial ideology as a powerful weapon for political propaganda to dismantle
apartheid regime. Thus, photography not only had a central role in therevelation movement, but was a constitutive element in the historicaltransformation toward de-colonization in Africa, including the demise ofapartheid in South Africa. This section traces the historical development of
documentary photography in the context of South Africa before looking at
Guy Tillim’s photo-essay works.
The tendency of socially engaged photography in South Africa is reportedly
rooted in journalistic photography, emerging in the 1950s as apartheid
operation was further entrenched following the election of the Nationalist❖ 23

Peffer, John. ‘Photography in Africa: Southand Southern.’ In Warren (ed.), op. cit., p.36.

Party in 1948, and South Africa observed the emergence of documentary❖23

photography. The photojournalism nurtured during apartheid hugely owed
❖24

❖ 24

ibid.

its development to popular magazines such as Drum and Zonk! In particular,
Drum, founded in 1951 and originally targeted towards a native black
African readership, was instrumental in providing the space for negotiatinga different mode of being and served to construct a modern identity. Drumrapidly gained popularity as it offered readers a new visual representationof their lifestyle, ranging from newsworthy events, the image of political❖ 25

Firstenberg, op. cit., p.176.

leaders, celebratory images of emergent urban cultures, and investigative❖25

reports into socio-political situations that concerned black South Africans.

This was nothing more than a projection of the oppressed aspirations for thereconstruction of an independent national consciousness that negated the

107

❖26

stereotyped African identities formed by colonial photographers . Further,by featuring photographers such as Bob Gosani (1934-1972), Alf Kumalo❖ 26

Garb (ed.), op. cit., p.35.

❖ 27

ibid.

❖ 28

ibid.

❖ 29

Peffer, John. ‘A Shadow: A Short Historyof Photography in South Africa.’ In Art
and the End of Apartheid. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2009, p.254.

❖ 30

Krantz, L. David. ‘Politics and Photography
in Apartheid South Africa,’ History of
Photography, Volume 32, Number 4(Winter, 2008), p.293.

❖ 31

Peffer, op. cit., p.254.

❖ 32

Krantz, op. cit., p.293.

❖ 33

Peffer, op. cit., p.254.

(1930-2012), Ernest Cole and Peter Magubane (1932-), as well as centeringon German photographer Jurgen Schadeberg (1931-), Drum served as avehicle to disseminate anti-apartheid views. Begun by Sharpville massacrein 1960, Drum became a device to consolidate the resistance movement.
With racial antagonism becoming increasingly paramount in South African
society, political activism by Nelson Mandela and the African National
Congress (hereafter ANC), and a series of political oppression exemplified
by a forced removal of colored South Africans from liberal and culturally
glamorous Sophia Town were laid out on its pages throughout the 1950s❖27

and early 1960s. Hence, tied closely with the social project for counteracting
apartheid power, Drum’s political outcry was strongly discernible on its pages.
Of note, international photo magazines such as Life, Picture Post and Paris
Match, which were brought to South Africa, provided the photographers
the conceptual source for the subsequent development of documentary❖28

photography such as the photo-essay style in South Africa.

The photojournalism in South Africa from the 1950s and 60s set afoundation for the birth of a genre called ‘struggle photography’ in South❖29

African photojournalism between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Struggle
photography signifies photographic documentation that records conflicts
and contentions between apartheid power and subjugated social groups
from the vantage point of the oppressed. Initiated by the Soweto uprisingby black students who conducted protests and sabotage against the state in
response to social conditions, the photographers produced the myriad of
struggle photography into which their political views were actively interwoven❖30

to support resistance. The gradual relaxation of censorship on anti-regime
photography by the state due to a pressure from international opinion in theearly 1980s also facilitated a formation of a collective photographic association,❖31

Afrapix, initially conceived by Omar Badsha (1945-) and Paul Weinber g(1956-). Modelled on Magnum Photos cooperative agency, this multiracialassociation, including both amateur and professional photographers aimed
at assisting individual photographers committed to archiving the resistancemovement and exposing the violence and brutality of the apartheid regime.
They also held workshops and exhibitions for communities that had little❖32

access to information and skills due to the apartheid education policy.

Struggle photography usually features black and white photographs as they
were considered as appropriate for socially engaging photographs, were
technically simple and affordable to develop and were mostly sought after❖33

and bought by news agencies . Visually appealing styles were deliberately
chosen to provoke anti-apartheid feelings within international communities.
Photographers applied dramatic perspectives, and strong black and white
contrast, and captured violent images that communicated beyond the limits ofthe format so as to render the urgency of situation. There was a narrow range108

of subject matter, focusing on everyday predicaments and social segregation
which black Africans were experiencing. The upsetting and emotionallyappealing scenes were also intentionally selected and photographed in black
and white with a high-contrast effect, aiming to reinforce the dramatic
scenes of protest rallies, and the intimidation experienced by black Africans❖ 34

Krantz, op. cit., p.296.

❖ 35

ibid.

❖34

under the regime. As a result, despite the photographers’ intentions, struggle
photography disseminated the misconception of black Africans as victims,❖35

using them as the evidence of one’s political assertion.

At the time of its foundation, Afrapix’s activities were greatly supported by theSouth African Conference of Churches via the allocation of office space andpurchase of photographs. The burgeoning demand for struggle photography
from NGOs, such as the International Defense and Aid Fund (IDAF) in
London as well as Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Press, resulted
in more involvement of photographers including Steven Hilton-Barber❖ 36

Krantz, op. cit., p.297.
Hayes, Patricia. ‘Power, Secrecy, Proximity: A
Short History of South African Photography,’
Kronos, No.33 (November 2007), p.151.

(1962-), Santu Mofokeng, Paul Weinberg, and Guy Tillim. As a result Afrapix❖36

grew from a staff of five to twenty-five.

By the mid-1980s a number of emergent photographers within Afrapix were
employed by international news agencies. As they supplied their photographs
each week to support networks in Europe, exhibitions accompanied bypublications such as South Africa: The Condoned Heart (1989), Beyond the
Barricades: Popular Resistance in South Africa in the 1980s (1989) and Hidden
Camera: South African Photography Escaped from Censorship (1989) became an
important vehicle to propagate anti-apartheid power. While the Condoned
Heart was prepared by the Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development
in South Africa, Beyond the Barricades was a project conducted by Afrapix to
document the resistance movement and counter the harsh censorship laws
❖ 37

Garb (ed.), op. cit., p.43.

and restrictions on photography that the decree of state emergency of 1986
❖37

legitimized. Important works which galvanized international condemnation
against apartheid atrocities and supported resistance movement were

❖ 38

ibid.

produced in this context, even though their political messages were often one❖38

sided and prescriptive.

As more members with varied views joined in Afrapix, the members oscillated
among different views regarding the treatment of subjects and its approach.
For example, Santu Mofokeng criticized the tendency of struggle photography
because it reduced the diverse experiences of black Africans in townships
into one narrow definition. While maintaining his political stance, he set
out to capture various aspects of the lives of black Africans. In the late 1980s
there was a growing concern among photographers about the message which
struggle photography transmitted to the international audience, and tension
between visibility and invisibility. Members of Afrapix began questioning thelack of knowledge regarding communities and people they photographed, and❖ 39

Krantz, op. cit., p.297.

the distance between the subject and the photographer as well as “huge gulf
❖39

between the world audience of viewers and the photographed.” The tendency109

of contemporary documentary photography rooted in the 1980s was derived
from the photographers’ self-critique towards the manner in which they
communicate the images of their subjects as active agents in the discourseof African modernity. Guy Tillim recalls about the tendency of 1980s
photojournalism: “When I think about my work in the 1980s, I feel some
❖40

❖ 40

Hayes, op. cit., pp.153-4; p.159.

❖ 41

ibid., p.156.
Garb, op. cit., p.43.

❖ 42

Krantz, op. cit., pp.297-8.

❖ 43

ibid., pp.298-9.

regrets, we were circumscribed by quite unified ways of thinking.” John Peffer,a historian of African photography, also notes that those who engage withrepresenting South African social situations through writing and visualization
began addressing institutionalized state oppression. Similarly, photographers
did not merely give a focus on depicting people’s lives under apartheid but
rather sought to interrogate the cause of subjugation by directing theirattention toward spaces of everyday life and people’s relationships with the❖41

objects and buildings that were constitutive parts of their lives.

The transformation regarding an approach to subjects and themes inphotographs was interlinked with changing opinions among culturalcommunities. The cultural workers, as well as the ANC which declared that“art should be utilized as a weapon for resistance” at the Botswana conferenceof 1982, initially supported struggle photography but later began pointing
out the limitation of its propensity. In particular, a paper questioning art
and culture in the service of resistance as political weapons by an ANC
activist Albie Sach (1935-) stirred controversy within the artistic community.
He articulated that the role of art is to reveal hidden contradictions andinstitutionalized violence in reality and that it impoverishes both the culture
and struggle if art is to be continuously sustained in the service of resistanceas political device. In short, he claims that culture embodies both our societies
and visions of the nation, and that the future of South Africa has to be shaped❖42by exploration for diverse means of expression.

Afrapix was polarized between two opposing groups and eventually disbanded in
1990. The closure of Afrapix and the diversification of themes in documentary
photography might have been directly related to the changing political climatesin South Africa from the end of apartheid of 1991 to the birth of the Prime
Minister Nelson Mandela of 1994. The decline in demand for dramatic scenesof political rallies and conflicts prompted Afrapix photographers to find new❖43

themes and approaches for new markets such as art galleries and museums.
Nevertheless, the legacy of struggle photography was inherited by the subsequent
documentary photography in South Africa. In the following section, I shall
explore the development of documentary photography in South Africa after

the end of Afrapix in the Jo’burg series by Guy Tillim and how he imagined/
represented the post-apartheid Johannesburg through his utopian lens.

5. Utopian telescope:

Analysis of Guy Tillim’s Jo’burg series
In Jo’burg series, Guy Tillim captures contemporary situations by employing

110a photo-essay style, which consists of sixty-one photographs.The photoessay style, originally established by Life, is one of the styles of documentary
photography that assemble a series of photographs documenting social eventsand human stories as a narrative. This style prompts consideration into events❖ 44

Kishi. op. cit., p. 34.

by fusing the reality captured in the photographs with social conditions and❖44

contexts . Together with the photo-essay style, Tillim employs juxtapositionsof conflicting images to examine the causes leading to the dystopia-likeliving condition of habitants of high-rise apartments in inner city areas,such as Hillbrow, Yeoville and Berea in Johannesburg, to “narrate(s) long❖ 45

Enwezor, Okwui. ‘The Analytical Impulse
in Contemporary African Photography.’
In Snap Judgments: New Positions in
C o n t e m p o ra r y A f r i c a n P h o t o g ra p h y .
Göttingen: Steidl in association with theInternational Center of Photography, 2006,
p.37.

lasting and closely linked historical configurations like colonialism, economic❖45

underdevelopment and patterns of violence.”
The urban phenomenon of post-apartheid Johannesburg is skillfully captured in
the coexistence of contradictory images, all of which have symbolic meanings
within the photographs. Fragmented images of modern architecture in decay,
indexical to the capitalist development of contemporary global cities, and black
residents who earned their livings outside official economic frameworks together❖ 46

Lehan, Joanna. ‘Guy Tillim: Things as
They Seem Interview with Joanna Lehan,’Aperture, 193, Winter, 2008, p.60.

❖46

render a more twisted historical configuration of current Johannesburg [Fig.1] .
This enables documentation of the contemporary inner city of Johannesburg
as fragments pulled from various moments in the past
to construct a layered historical time line. In detecting
both the decay and re-appropriation of these modernbuildings by black residents, photographs from Jo'burg
series enables us to observe how social memory isarchived and retained in the cityscape of Johannesburg.
Further, the photographs reject to render decayingarchitecture in any pathos, beauty or nostalgic feeling.
Rather, the photographs indicate the trajectory of thecurrent city formation/transformation and “rational❖47

reason for the decade.”

Fig.1
Al's Tower, a block of flats on Harrow
Road, Berea, overlooking the Pontebuilding ©STEVENSON

The physical decline of city in Johannesburg began when large numbers ofwhite residents fled South Africa in panic in the face of the 1967 Soweto
uprising, which facilitated the lifting of influx control in 1986. Consequently,❖ 47

Lehan, op. cit., p.64.

❖ 48

Murray, Martin J. ‘The City in Fragments:
K a l e i d o s c o p i c Jo h a n n e s b u r g a f t e rApartheid.’ In G. Prakash and Kevin M.
Kruse (eds.), The Spaces of the Modern City:
Imaginaries, Politics, and Everyday Life.
Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University
Press, 2008, p.150.

❖ 49

❖ 50

MacLeod, Gordon and Ward, Kevin. ‘Spaceof Utopia and Dystopia: Landscaping theContemporary City,’ Geografiska Annaler:
Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 84, No.
3/4, 2012, p.155.

a considerable number of black South Africans (80% of the population)
flocked into the inner city from the surrounding township areas (13% of
the land) where black South Africans were forced to live during apartheid.
As white residents left their apartment buildings, owners of buildings began
increasing rent and cutting the maintenance service for new black residents,❖48

which resulted in the physical decline of the buildings. Due to Johannesburg’s
two extremely different characters, it is often characterized as a conjuncture of
utopian and dystopian spaces that are “physically proximate but institutionally❖49

estranged.” This part of the city in the photographs presents narratives of❖50

intentional negligence and abandonment without much official recognition.

Enwezor, op. cit., p.37.

A series of photographs in Jo’burg starts from the placement of a photograph111called “A Map of Central Johannesburg at the Inner City Regeneration
Project Office, City Council, Loveday Street” and a photograph of a long
distant view of the city under gloomy sky with high-rise modern buildings
which symbolize the capitalist economic development of global cities[Fig.2 and 3] . The focus of Tillim’s camera lens gradually shifts from theexterior to interior of buildings of an inner city residential neighborhoodin Johannesburg [Fig.4, 5 and 6]. The arranged flow of series of photographs
generates a tension to stimulate a viewer’s imagination about how dystopia
was anticipated when More’s utopia was imagined by the local government.
The current post-apartheid urban development in Johannesburg originatesfrom comprehensive urban development planning by former colonialadministrators in England following the discovery of the Witwastersrand❖51

gold reef in 1886. This period set the foundation for the coherent stateintervention to a subsequent urban development plan regarding the control❖ 51 Mabin, Alan and Smit, Dan. ‘Reconstructuring

South Africa’s Cities? The Making of Urban
Planning 1900-2000,’ Planning Perspectives,
12:2, p.194.

of the pattern of black settlement in urban environments, and private
subdivision of land for urban use. Since then, Johannesburg’s urban planning
functioned as an effective power apparatus to directly control relations
between the state constituted by white elites and the black South Africans

Fig.2 (Upper left)
A map of central Johannesburg at the Inner City Regeneration Project
office, City Council, Loveday Street ©STEVENSON
Fig.3 (Upper right)
View of Hillbrow looking north from the roof of the Mariston Hotel ©STEVENSON
Fig.4 (Left middle)
San Jose, a block of flats in Olivia Street, Berea ©STEVENSON
Fig.5 (Right middle)
Manhattan Court, Plein Street ©STEVENSON
Fig.6 (Bottom)
The view from an apartment in Jeanwell House overlooking the intersectionof Nugget and Pritchard Streets ©STEVENSON

112

❖ 52

Murray, op. cit., p.150.

on the basis of socio-spatial construction, which was further entrenched by❖52

the Group Area Act of 1950, during the course of twentieth-century. Thisrational city construction was inextricably linked with the aspiration forworld city status in the face of growing global capitalism throughout thetwentieth-century. As human geographers Gordon MacLeod and Kevin
Ward explain, financial pressure caused by gradual deindustrialization in
the 1970s and 80s and central government’s financial cut for municipalities
transformed provincial governments from the provider of welfare and public
services into entrepreneurs to attract capital investment from the private
sector. Moreover, the choice of projects was dependent on whether or notthey efficiently maximized local economic development, and attracted more
capital investment and revenue from tourism. In contrast, only a handful❖ 53 MacLeod, Gordon and Ward, Kevin. op. cit.,

p.155.

projects were implemented to improve the social services and infrastructure❖53

required by the community . New spatial management emerged under
the auspices of a city council to renew social divide in post-apartheid
Johannesburg, when new social reality that benefits and vested interests❖ 54

Murray, op. cit., p.148.

❖54

maintained by racial segregation were no longer sustainable became apparent .
A regeneration plan of a cityscape with skyscrapers, a symbol of capitalism
and the growth of the city, and the degrading living conditions of the innercity prompt us to imagine the process in which the city is formed andare intricately intertwined with a range of factors including globalization,
capitalism and long standing issue of racial segregation [Fig.7 and 8].

Fig.7

Fig.8

Eviction by the Red Ants, Auret Street, Jeppestown ©STEVENSON

Eviction aftermath, Noverna Court, Paul Nel Street, Hillbrow ©STEVENSON

Unlike other photographers such as Zwelethwa Mhethwa (1960-), Pieter
Hugo (1976-), and David Goldblatt (1930-), Tillim continues to use a
35-millimeter camera for photographing built-up environments to maintainhis mobility during shooting as a way of penetrating himself into given
environment. Tillim comments that “most forms of photographic practice❖ 55

Lehan, op. cit., p.64.

are about locating oneself. The point is how well this location can be❖55

described.” “Tillim gives form to the locality and condition of predicaments,❖ 56

Garb, op. cit., p.59.

as experienced ‘on the ground’ from a proximate and embedded vantage❖56

point.” His approach is reflected in the procedure when he photographs his
subjects, as one can observe the name of individuals included in many of thephotographs' titles [Fig.9]. He spent time to get acquainted with his subjects,
not bringing a camera on his first visit. Moreover, his usage of a tripod also113

Fig.9Fig.10Pinky Masoe at her home in Sherwood Heights, Smit Street.
The building's water and electricity had been cut off for four months

Tshililo (right) and her friends share a one-roomed apartment
in Cape Agulhas, Esselen Street, Hillbrow©STEVENSON©STEVENSON

allows his subjects to pose as they wish in front of camera’s lens, denying thecolonial gaze, voyeurism and stereotyped Africa that disturbs the constructionof a positive self-image [Fig.10]. This can be construed as his criticism on
❖57

❖ 57

Enwezor, op. cit., p.37.

❖ 58

Bajorek, Jennifer. ‘Flat Gazes, Uneven
Geographies: Guy Tillim’s Jo’burg.’ In
Leora Farber (ed.), Representation andSpatial Practices in Urban South Africa.
Johannesburg: Faculty of Art, Design, andArchitecture, University of Johannesburg,
2008, p.188.

a typical outsider view of ethnographer and journalist . Unlike ‘struggle
photography’, which shows the subjects as victims of apartheid, photographsfrom the Jo’burg series communicates the quotidian joys, energy, flexibility,
adaptation and bravery of the residents, as an emergent diverse way of life❖58

[Fig11, 12 and13 ] .

As has been examined above, this photo-essay suggests how the constructionof post-apartheid Johannesburg showcases implicit dystopia via thejuxtaposition of contradictory elements which is physical reminiscence oflayered time. Deteriorating modern buildings together with nuanced images
depicting everyday life of the residents “make constant reference to a much

Fig.11 (Left)
Mbulelo's bar, Joel Road, Berea. Justice Sibanyone (centre) and his wife
Monica (extreme left) ©STEVENSON
Fig.12 (Left below)
Zimbabwean Innocent Mazeka's place, 402 Al's Tower, Joel Road, Berea©STEVENSON

Fig.13 (Right below)
Richard in the girls' room, Cape Agulhas, Esselen Street, Hillbrow©STEVENSON

114

❖59

❖ 59

Hayes, op. cit., p.159.

deeper pastness .” In short, the Jo’burg series makes comments on capitalism,
the recurring issues of apartheid and the history of photography. The series
provides us an interrogative telescope to gain glimpse of the consequence ofthe capitalist development, inequality in the construction of post-apartheid
Johannesburg and deep-rooted issues of inclusion and exclusion. While
avoiding a prescriptive approach, the Jo’burg series prompts us to look further

❖ 60

❖ 61

Enwezor, Okwui. ‘The Indeterminate
Structure of Things Now: Notes onContemporary South African Photography.’
In Tamar Grab (ed.), Home Lands, Land
Marks: Contemporary Art from South Africa.
Exh. cat., London: Haunch of Venison,
2008, p.35.

into the hidden structural predicaments of the subjects who are enclosed byinvisible mechanism of relation between global economy and post-apartheidurban development before imagining a better future and developing any❖60

utopian imagination. Tillim’s Jo’burg series, therefore, set a basis for the“imagining a different Africa” so as to “redirect the eye toward a future❖61

Peffer, op. cit., p.262.

transformation”.

6. Conclusion
To summarize, this essay has examined the propensity of documentary
photography, the development of documentary photography in South
Africa and Tillim’s photo-essay Jo’burg series representing post-apartheid
Johannesburg by applying the utopian concept conceived by Ernst Bloch andthe sociological perspective of Ruth Levitas who extended Bloch’s concept of
utopia. We have observed that photographers’ aspirations to reform society forthe better future by means of photography was firmly grounded on objective
realization of existing social contradictions and injustice.
By the same token, as we have observed Tillim’s Jo’burg series, the diversity
in subject matter and thought-provoking style is embedded in both South
African photographers’ awareness towards the long history of struggle❖ 62Firstenberg, op. cit., p.175.

for representation in ethnographic archives and propagandistic use ofphotography, and the necessity to address “its weighty history” from the❖62colonial period to post-apartheid South Africa. Therefore, they are attempting
to project new demand for representation from South Africans in the post❖ 63

Peffer, op. cit., p.36.

❖63

apartheid era . From this standpoint, photography is both an artifact andartifice in which layered meanings and values are projected, and the way
in which a photographer as an ‘author,’ whose subjectivity is shaped andinformed by the social context in which he/she is situated, engage with thespecificity of social, economic and political conditions and attest to theirplace of orientation. Seen from this point, as Ruth Levitas has pointed out,
utopian impulse for a better future is a social and cultural construction, not ahuman innate nature. On another level, due to photographers' critical insights
into existing social issues as a source of utopian impulse, photography has
become essential in the formation of our society and construction of our future,
rather than a mere device by which to record existing realities. Therefore, afurther ethical responsibility of those involved in potential social change, such as
photographers, artists, and museum curators, who represent photographs from acertain perspective, is continuously required in the future.

115

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