Walking Cape Town’s streets, surrounded by tall concrete walls topped with electric fences, barbed wire and spikes, was a strange experience for me. In the peaceful suburbia where I live in the USA, white picket fences are more for show framing perfect green lawns. South Africa’s beautiful flowers and plants leaning on the dangerous wires made for an odd juxtaposition. I wondered if these barriers, meant to protect the occupants from violence and theft, are instead widening the gap between the haves and have nots - a physical obstacle to social cohesion.
Neither the ponderings nor the walls diminished my usual curiosity or inhibited my movement. I chose to photograph the bright side. Houses painted in rainbow colors in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood where Cape Malay live. Colorful murals on the walls of up and coming Woodstock where local artists settled down. Vibrant fynbos growing happily in botanical gardens or along the roads. Blue bays with mountain vistas and small historic ports. The man-made and the natural ensemble as diverse and lively as the people who created and cherish it. The bright side that inspires dreams and hopes of a world without violence.
