Just because…

June 14, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

“Because it’s there” – mountaineer, George Mallory (18 March 1923); on being asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. Contrary to what people may think, I don’t feel comfortable talking about myself; it’s difficult for me to sit face to face with someone and tell them what it is I’m doing with my photography. Sitting next to someone on a flight, especially long-distance causes me a degree of anxiety that I’m sure a lot of people who know me […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Johannesburg, pretoria, south africa

Boston 26

April 8, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

The white squatters camp at Krugersdorp has grown onto the side of a much larger, blacks only township. These images were taken in the ‘transition area’ between the two settlements. Despite being there to photograph the white residents, I did take a lot of photos of the neighbouring black kids too. ‘Friday 16th March – Driving back through Pretoria I see an immaculately dressed black woman crossing the road, her obviously expensive designer clothes compliment her flawless complexion. From a […]

Categories: film photography, travel • Tags: Johannesburg, kodak portra 160, Krugersdorp, pentax 67, white squatter camps

The things i saw (South Africa) #3

April 5, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

More visual meanderings from my analogue notebook and a passage from my journal. All images here were made using an Olympus MjuII compact loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 film. ‘Sunday 18th March – I’ve spent the last four days photographing people, old people, children. Families of five and six, living in sheds, surrounded by poverty and filth. I can’t give them anything, except a few packets of cookies and the odd cigarette to anyone who smokes. Every day I come […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, Johannesburg, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps

The things i saw (south africa) #2

April 4, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

At the moment, I’m sorting through about 100 ‘final’ images, mostly portraits, whittled down from 400 photographs I made for the photo-essay ‘Plakkerskamp’. I’m itching to share more, but I can’t, at the moment. So here’s another entry from my visual notebook. I’ve also included an entry from my journal which I wrote on the evening of my first visit to the white squatters camp at Krugersdorp, situated about 20km northwest of Johannesburg. ‘Munsieville Camp, Krugersdorp – We sat outside […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: Johannesburg, kodak ektar 100, Krugersdorp, Olympus mju II, photojournalism, pretoria, south africa, travel, white squatter camps

The things I saw (South Africa) #1

April 2, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

‘The things I saw’ – my visual notetaking and mental meanderings with a 35mm compact camera – I’d like to say it’s a regular thing. However, I just checked, and the last one I did was nearly 18 months ago, documenting a weekend drinking session in Liverpool with a good friend. Before I departed for a weeks work in South Africa, to document white squatter camps, I was reunited with my favourite 35mm compact – the Olympus MjuII, which had […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, I shoot film, Johannesburg, kodak ektar 100, Olympus mju II, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps

Plakkerskamp

March 30, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I was in South Africa for a week in March, shooting a photo essay, ‘Plakkerskamp’, a project to document the lives of white people living in the numerous squatter camps in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria since the end of Apartheid, 24 years ago. I have a lot of images to sort and various articles to write, so I thought I’d publish a few photographs now to ‘get the ball rolling’. South Africa was such an astonishing place; it felt […]

Categories: photojournalism, travel • Tags: Johannesburg, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps