Full Description
A single image taken from a high-rise building in inner-city Johannesburg uncovers layers of history-from its premise and promise of gold to its current improvisations. It reveals the city as carcass and as crucible, where informal agents and processes spearhead its rapid reshaping and transformation. In Wake Up, This Is Joburg, writer Tanya Zack and photographer Mark Lewis offer a stunning portrait of Johannesburg and personal stories of some of the city's ordinary, odd, and outrageous residents. Their photos and essays take readers into meat markets where butchers chop cow heads; the eclectic home of an outsider artist that features turrets and full of manikins; long-abandoned gold pits beneath the city, where people continue to mine informally; and lively markets, taxi depots, and residential high-rises. Sharing people's private and work lives and the extraordinary spaces of the metropolis, Zack and Lewis show that Johannesburg's urban transformation occurs not in a series of dramatic, wide-scale changes but in the everyday lives, actions, and dreams of individuals.
Contents
Foreword. True Places / Achal Prabhala ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1. S'kop 27
2. Tony Dreams in Yellow and Blue 53
3. Inside Out 81
4. Zola 115
5. Good Riddance 143
6. Tea at Anstey's 175
7. Bedroom 211
8. Master Mansions 241
9. Johannesburg. Made in China 271
10. Undercity 305
References 337
Index 339
