Love From Manenberg
Photographer: Sarah Stacke
Exhibit Title: Love From Manenberg
Location: South Africa
"Love From Manenberg" addresses the ways a community plagued by gang violence –– stemming from historical, geographical, cultural and political oppression –– looks to the future and manages the loves, losses and predictability of day-to-day living.
A suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, Manenberg was established in the Cape Flats in the 1960s by the apartheid government.
Long known as one of South Africa's most violent places, faith, fortitude and family help the people of Manenberg persevere and in many cases, prosper. Yet the community is singularly recognized in mainstream media for its social problems, which include unemployment, crime, substance abuse and above all, relentless gang violence.
I first photographed Manenberg in June 2011. Many people have shared their lives with me with extraordinary candor, but I am particularly grateful to the Lottering, Pietersen, and Adams families. The title of this series, “Love From Manenberg,” is in part a reference to the love each of these families embodies. The title also aptly describes the relationships I have formed with those pictured here, and others, while working in Manenberg.
Sarah Stacke is a photographer and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her personal work looks at places whose borders were created during periods of colonization. Often spending time with a community over the course of months or years, she explores the intersection of culture and memory and the ways relationships to the land and its boundaries shape identity. This work takes her to tribal nations in North Carolina, South Dakota and Minnesota, and also Manenberg, South Africa.
Clients include National Geographic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, STAT by Boston Globe Media, Washington Post and Open Society Foundations. From 2017-2019, Sarah curated the Photo of the Day section for Photo District News.
Sarah received a master’s degree from Duke University tailored to analyze photographic representations of African and African-American communities. She's an adjunct faculty member at the International Center of Photography and CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and the author of the award-winning book, Photos Day or Night: The Archive of Hugh Mangum (Red Hook Editions, 2018).
Sarah Stacke
www.sarahstacke.com
email: sarah@sarahstacke.com
phone: 347-661-0414
Instagram: @sarah_stacke
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