Series · 21 works

The Photograph's Debt

Uganda and South Africa, photographed over years of going back.

Series note

I made these photographs in Uganda and South Africa over more than a decade of going back. Most were taken around Lake Bunyonyi in the south-west and in villages and settlements in the north. There are tea transporters crossing the lake, people working a steep terraced slope, a fisherman on the banks of the Nile, children in doorways and peering over walls, a tailor at work in front of a wall of posters.

The title comes from something I have never settled. A camera takes a person's face, a moment, the light of a particular afternoon, and carries it somewhere else: into a print, a frame, a wall in another country. The people in these pictures gave me more than I gave them. I don't think a photograph can pay that back, and I have not tried to pretend otherwise.

Going back mattered more than any single trip. The first pictures were drawn to what was striking. Later ones are about smaller things: a child looking up, a group sitting under a thatched roof, someone cycling past. I printed the series in black and white because it keeps my eye on faces and gestures.

Contact sheet

Scan the sheet · click a frame to open the work · right-click for print details

The Photograph's Debt21 frames

  1. Two people walking between simple dwellings made of corrugated metal and wood in Vaalwater, South Africa.
    People of Vaalwater
  2. Black-and-white portrait of a man in motion in Vaalwater, South Africa.
    Vaalwater Portrait: Movement
  3. Black and white portrait of a child standing in a mud-hut doorway in Uganda.
    Child at Doorway, Uganda
  4. Black-and-white photograph of children peering over a wall in North Uganda.
    Peeking Over the Wall
  5. Black and white street scene photograph in Ortuka, Northern Uganda.
    Daily Life in Northern Uganda
  6. Black and white street scene photograph in a refugee settlement in Northern Uganda.
    Street Scene, Northern Uganda
  7. Black-and-white photograph of a group of children in Uganda looking up.
    Scene from Uganda
  8. Black-and-white portrait of a child looking up in Uganda.
    Child Looking Up, Uganda
  9. Black-and-white portrait of a child watching the camera in Uganda.
    Scene from Uganda
  10. Black-and-white portrait of an older man smiling in Amuria, Uganda.
    Radiant Smile: Village Elder Portrait
  11. Black-and-white photograph of villagers gathered under a thatched roof shelter in rural Uganda.
    Ugandan Village Gathering
  12. A Ugandan family standing outside their traditional mud hut with a thatched roof.
    Ugandan Family: Life in a Rural Village
  13. A young Ugandan child peeking around a rough, textured pillar or wall, looking towards the camera.
    Peeking from Behind
  14. Black-and-white portrait of a street tailor working in front of a wall of posters in Uganda.
    Street Tailor by the Poster Wall
  15. Close-up, sepia-toned portrait photograph of a Ugandan fisherman.
    Portrait of a Ugandan Fisherman
  16. Black-and-white photograph of a canoe carrying tea across Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda.
    Transporting Tea on Lake Bunyonyi
  17. A person cycling past a weathered building with damaged windows on a roadside in Northern Uganda.
    Cycling Past, North Uganda
  18. Black-and-white photograph of a child splashing in water in Uganda.
    Splashing Fun, Uganda
  19. Black-and-white profile of a man transporting tea on Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda.
    Tea Transporter on Lake Bunyonyi
  20. Black-and-white photograph of people working a steep terraced slope above Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda.
    Working the Steep Slopes
  21. Black and white tea market scene on the shore of Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda.
    Tea Market at Lake Bunyonyi

Full-screen archive