'Another Country'

Photographer Reiner Leist emigrated from West Germany to South Africa in 1988, where he stayed until he took up residence in the United States in 1994. During his time in South Africa – which constituted a significant period of transition to democracy – he started taking portraits of ordinary and extraordinary South Africans. Fifteen years later Leist returned in search of these individuals to take a second set of images for the photographic essay ‘Another Country’.

According to the artist: 'Since 1988, more than 200 South Africans have shared their perspectives on the country and their personal histories with me. These narratives have had a large impact on my view of the world, and influenced me in my professional capacity. In 1993, one year before the nation’s first democratic elections, the participants were invited to collaborate with me in the publication ‘South Africa: Blue Portraits’ which was published in the same year. Each person was asked to choose a background for a portrait in black and white; 73 of these were included in the final publication. In 2009 I began to revisit the participants in order to find out how their living circumstances had changed since our last discussion sixteen years ago, through the lens of the original photographs. The new narratives form the content and the inspiration for ‘Another Country’, the follow up publication. In ‘Another Country’, black-and-white portraits are followed by new colour portraits of the participants or, in some cases, of surviving sons or daughters, a grandson, a new bearer of an office or position, or a visitor to the same site. The images are accompanied by edited versions of new interviews. In the editing process, I tried to preserve a sense of the words as spoken, and to offer the reader an experience as listener, in a bound collection of the visual and verbal stories of many of my teachers. I remain a student of their humanity and of the South African landscape.'

‘Another Country’, is published by Jacana and accompanies the exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

18 April - 13 July