Photographer Sabelo Mlangeni

As young adults, many South Africans leave their homes in the countryside and head for Johannesbury in search of work. In this short film shot in the inner-city district of Jeppestown, photographer Sabelo Mlangeni explains how he got his start as a photography student (thanks to a bursary from the Market Photo Workshop) and goes back to the rough and ready block where he spent his early days in the big city.Working exclusively in black and white and often choosing portraits of the poor and the marginalised as his subject matter, Mlangeni is coming to be seen as one of the heirs to the documentary photographic tradition of David Goldblatt and Santu Mofokeng. His work is raw and direct but he insists less about poverty than the search for beauty amidst deprivation and hardship.

                                        >>>Sabelo Mlangeni