Report from South Africa, 2008

1.woman from project interviewed by team members (kim in red) for the book

2. me with the other team members and the women from one of the paper making projects 

3. showroom from paper making project--created by the women to showcase their products

4. ivory park, informal settlement outside of johannesburg

Greetings from South Africa!

Don't have much time, but want to finally post some pictures and give you an idea of what I'm doing and where I've been.  I'm mostly traveling for hours a day visiting various townships in remote areas--no internet access.  Finally back in Johannesburg with some time to organize nearly 1000 images for the book.  Such an interesting and exhausting experience...traveling with a team of women that includes an anthropologist , a woman's studies professor from the university of Michigan, a grad student from the psychology dept at the University of Michigan, 2 students from the art dept. at the University of Johannesburg--both acting as translators (they are each conversant in 4 or 5 of the 11 languages spoken in S.A.), the regional coordinator of the organization that we're documenting and an amazing ambassador between our group and the women that we're interviewing, and me, a shell-shocked photographer.  My friend Kim, political artist and creator of the paper-making program that we're documenting for a book called "Woman on Purpose the Founding Women of Phumani Paper" was able to join us for the final day of our travel.  The book will not only document the program's impact on impoverished women (many have lost their families to aids and are HIV positive as well), but the experience of our cross racial, political, economic and disciplinary group of women who make up our own team.  So, not only are we visiting test subjects, we too are test subjects. So many amazing experiences--too little time to report--must go to bed soon--10:00pm here and I only slept 3 hrs last night.