Description
Ms. Elisabeth’s Handmaiden, 1998 – This photograph is taken of Ms. Elisabeth Mahlangu and her granddaughter, Anna in front of the exterior wall gate at the home of Ms. Elisabeth. I have been staying in my own little building on their compound for some time documenting their daily life. Anna comes to her grandmother’s home every morning to do her chores, before she walks off to school. One day Anna asks, if I will take her picture and she says she wants to “dress up.” I say “yes,” and agree to take a portrait of her the next morning. In my mind I thought she would come in traditional Ndebele attire for a young un-initiated girl her age. She arrives wearing her ‘best dress’ and I shoot this photograph. Once again, the past for Ndebele and the future for Ndebele are caught together in this ‘present’ moment. The wall patterns on Ms. Elisabeth’s wall are unique family symbols, which have been repainted in the exact same mode after every rainy season for 34 years.
