Our friend Debbie Clark writes on behalf of her friend Anne Rearick,
“My friend Anne Rearick has 13 days left to raise the $17,500 she needs to publish her book of amazing photographs which document her visits to South Africa during the past 10 years. She is 3/4 of the way to her goal. Perhaps the good folk at GMG would share her project to support Anne’s efforts? Btw: she is the wife of local musician Willie Alexander, a teacher and an amazing photographer. Thank you for your help. Best, Deb.”
Your support will help me raise money to fund a 160-page book of photographs that celebrates the spirit and strength of South Africans who face endemic violence, extreme economic hardship, and racism that has not abated, while all the time maintaining dignity, hope and courage.
I have been working as a documentary photographer for nearly thirty years. Over the past decade I have photographed life in the townships of Langa, Khayelitsha, Philippi and Mitchell’s Plain outside of Cape Town, South Africa. My work there began during a Guggenheim Fellowship year for my exploration of the culture of amateur boxing. During my trip, I met people living in Langa and Khayelitsha and began photographing the Luvuyo Boxing Club in Khayelitsha. I felt uncomfortable as yet another white person with a camera, photographing people with less resources and access to power. Subsequently, I cut my trip short, unsure of the work I was doing and who would actually benefit from it. Upon my return to the States, I looked at the pictures I had made and decided to go back to learn more, to further explore post-apartheid life in black communities. After over a dozen trips and more than a thousand rolls of film, I began to believe that the pictures mattered-they were not about people as victims, or about poverty, or any of those things one imagines life in black South African townships to be.
Outside the cities frequented by tourists and business travelers, in vibrant townships, I found beauty and strength and all the contradictions of being human in the people I photographed; a preacher testifying to his rapt congregation; a couple’s loving embrace at day’s end; the proud regard of my friend Sindi in her traditional Xhosa dress; the moving funeral of a young Sotho man; the poetry and grace of a girl dancing on a warm Sunday afternoon; and the striking face of “Dream Girl,” a young woman studying to be a traditional healer, a “sangoma.”
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Published by Kimsmithdesigns
Documentary filmmaker, photographer, landscape designer, author, and illustrator. "Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly" currently airing on PBS. Current film projects include Piping Plovers, Gloucester's Feast of St. Joseph, and Saint Peter's Fiesta. Visit my websites for more information about film and design projects at kimsmithdesigns.com, monarchbutterflyfilm.com, and pipingploverproject.org. Author/illustrator "Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Notes from a Gloucester Garden."
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Good Morning Gloucester 
Anne has shown her work at Flatrocks Gallery in Lanesville and returned from her last trip with amazing tablecloths and napkins made from fabric printed by women in South Africa that are forming a cooperative to market fabric goods. The printed fabrics are stand alone works of art. The money will help lift their communities out of poverty, as well as, help them to develop the contacts necessary to market their goods through their traditional handcrafted products. There is so much more to this story.
Thank you for sharing and if one can help financially; please do.
This needs to happen and our little corner of the world can help to change another corner of the world in a good way.
best always,
deb clarke
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Thank you Deb for sharing that added bit of info, very much appreciated. I look forward to seeing the fabrics. Is there anywhere they can be seen now?
To much success to Anne and all very best to you!
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I dropped a note to Anne and she will get the information to you! thank you for asking.
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My son in law works with the kids of the townships in South Africa. He is involved in an organization “Waves for Change” they work with the kids from these very same townships. They have a small office in Muzenburg–look them up next time you are in South Africa. They are doing amazing work with these kids through surf therapy.
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