Photo exhibition no walk in the park

These words of Rubixcube gallery curator Frederick Clarke powerfully describe photographer Jono Wood’s solo exhibition, The Park.

“It’s no easy task to understand and accept the many challenges and paradoxes our society contains, and yet we continue to unpack the jumble of variables that make South Africa, and more relevantly, Johannesburg, such a remarkable place to live and work,” he said.

Wood, an independent photographer, is one South African who embraced the risk of asking real questions and the responsibility of receiving real answers.

“The Park is more than a simple exhibition of portraits,” said Clarke.

“The process, dedication, risk and respect involved is what defines this body of work.”

Clarke said that Wood and his friend Nickolaus Bauer, who live in Ponte Tower, visited the park in which the subjects were found for months.

“The people in the park [were] not photographed unwillingly and unconsciously. Through many months of committed engagement, Wood established something of an understanding with his subjects,” he said.

He described the exhibition as a “window into the stereotype nightmare of many affluent Joburgers”.

“A violent, drugged-up, traumatised and hardened group of outsiders; the people [who] become ‘they’. ‘They’ have no names, mercy or morals. ‘They’ are the problem,” he said.

Clarke said that, as this site of criminality, addiction and despair was examined objectively, it became clear that “‘we’ are as much of a problem as ‘them'”.

“The people in these images have been decontextualised by the white backdrop that Wood installed in the park when he photographed them. By doing this, he focuses our attention not on the dangerous and run-down environment, but… solely toward a group of individuals [who] do what they can to survive in this city,” he said.

The photographs were taken with a Hasselblad film camera and printed on a life-size scale.

“This exhibition challenges fear and judgement of the other. If we look at these people, we also have to look at ourselves. This is not poverty pornography. It is an objective, brave, and technically masterful portrayal of real people, in real life.”

The Park is at Rubixcube Gallery, Unit 22, 264 Fox Street, Arts on Main, Maboneng Precinct, until 23 February.

Open on 6 February during the Maboneng Night Market from 6pm until 10pm, on Saturdays from 10am until 3pm, on Sundays from 10am until 4pm, or by appointment.

Wood and Bauer will host a walkabout on 8 February at 10am.

Details: 072 252 7763; rubixcube.maboneng@gmail.com