Saturday, January 13, 2007

Blue Eyes Magazine and Mikhael Subotzky

Blueeyes Magazine is an online documentary photography magazine devoted to publishing new long-term project work. It is a labor of love created by a dedicated group of people who believe in the power of still photography. The magazine was created in 2003 in response to declining editorial space for documentary images, following in the footsteps of the now defunct Untitled Magazine to publish pictures that support and celebrate passionate and personal photography.

The photo essays can be incredibly powerful, as seen in this one titled Die Vier Hoeke & Umjiegwana , by Mikhael Subotzky

These words introduce the photographic essay ... South Africa is in the midst of an unprecedented crime wave which is causing very real suffering and widespread panic. Swept away by the public's fear, stories of the criminals themselves are seldom heard, and the complex and environmental reasons behind these crimes rarely properly understood.

South Africa's prison system is bursting at its seams and is increasingly unable to contain the dramatically increasing criminal population. For many prisoners and former inmates, life in South Africa itself is so difficult that the wall separating prison and freedom has come to represent very little.

Whether inside or out, many men and their families living around Cape Town are stuck in a desperate cycle. Die Vier Hoeke is gang terminology which refers to the inside of the prisons. It translates directly to "The Four Corners." Umjiegwana means "The Outside."

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