Alan Aubry • photographer • +33 6 64 65 92 65

Orania Afrikanertuiste

Alan — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:28:03 +0000

During the years preceding the end of Apartheid, some Afrikaner’s politicians and activists were interested in creating a white province, a fallback in a system they knew doomed to disappear.
This idea of a white province was rejected by the ruling and opposition parties negotiators while finding an end to Apartheid.
However, a small part of the Afrikaner ideologists had already bought an almost deserted and derelected settlement from the Department of Water, so they could create a private town for the white descendants of the « Great Trek pioneers ».
An enclave with the intention of allowing the Afrikaner’s community to live separately and in an independent way towards the other populations sharing the same territory.
Today, this town called Orania has 700 inhabitants and would extend over some 8000 hectares of mainly agricultural land.
Numerous inhabitants came for ideological reasons, some for work or safety.
Some Afrikaners are convinced of it, in this countryside has begun to resurrect South Africa, their South Africa.

Down memory lane

Alan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:23:47 +0000

After 6 years in Cape Town, I left South Africa, I was 11. I had to wait more than 20 years to come back. During one summer I spent 5 weeks travelling in the country, visiting places where I use to go and also places I’ve never been to before (such as some small towns in the Northern Cape or the townships). This work is not a simple collection of place, with nostalgia, but a sort of rediscovery of this country, with my adult eyes and my afroeuropean culture.

Work in progress – Lower side chronicle

Alan — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:43:31 +0000

Pictures mostly made in Normandy, France, from the lower side of the road.
These pictures are made while I’m travelling all over Normandy for my photo reports.