This project developed over several years when Dave was living and working in Salt River, a suburb of Cape Town undergoing urban renewal.

Dave uses a vintage 35mm panoramic camera to photograph the images ; to which he later adds ink or paint. The images experience a dynamic shifts when adding the layers of inks and paint to the surface of the photograph; stories develop which merge realistic narratives with mythical ones, reminiscent of the magical realism mode of writing, by African authors like Mia Couto from Mozambique, Ben Okri from Nigeria and Zakes Mda from South Africa.

“I have always been fascinated by the magical aspect of traditional photography – the serendipity, after processing one’s film, of finding something in the image that was unintentional but welcome at the same time. After being introduced to vintage panoramic cameras, I became intrigued by two distinctive effects these cameras produces: the first is selective focus, which throws some parts of the image into sharp focus and causes others to blur; the second is the unpredictable interaction between the movement of the camera and the movement of the subjects.”

Dave Robertson