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BORN FREE

The generation of South Africans coming of age is the first to be born free. Previous generations fought and won a long struggle for equal rights. 

 

South African photgrapher Nonsikelelo 'Lolo' Veleko captures the street fashion of South Africa's youth. Like the post-colonial photographs of Malick Sidibe in Mali, her photos capture a unique part of the country's history, revealed in fashion expressions of South Africa's youth.

"The Africa you have in mind. . . it's an invention."

"I can tell you stories from my culture that make people think I'm crazy for believing. It's an oral culture, but I trust my grandmother and other elders because they wouldn't have left me knowledge for nothing. Yet, this narrative aspect of culture goes unwritten - why should it be less important than the written? My photos are a form of public history,"
    
"Fashion and graffiti are always seen at face value and in one dimension. But if you scrape through the cloth and the texture and the details, you can understand what's happening socially. What is happening when skirts come up and what is happening when skirts come down? It's a language."

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