"Golden Youth": Johannesburg Fashionable Youth

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we are publishing the project of the South African photographer Oliver Kruger "Golden Youth", who for several years filmed visitors to the festival of street fashion and culture in Johannesburg.

As far as I can remember, my parents always had cameras and we took pictures on holidays. As a child, I tried to photograph animals and people, but it turned out so-so. In general, I experimented up to seventeen years old, and then I took a camera from my mother to shoot friends skating and began to learn the basics of photography. Then I abandoned my childhood dream of becoming a chef and realized that I really wanted to take pictures. I studied photography at an evening course at a local college — only six classes. The teacher recommended me to move quickly to practice: shoot, shoot and shoot again. The advice, of course, is excellent, but at times I miss the theory and I’m thinking about getting a full-fledged photographic education.

The project "Golden Youth" was born spontaneously. A friend invited me to go to Johannesburg to the StrtCrd street culture festival, mentioning that there would be someone to shoot. Neither he nor I knew what to expect from the event, but both decided to take the risk: I packed so much photographic equipment into the luggage that would be enough for a small studio, and flew to Johannesburg. After that trip I returned three times to this festival. I made friends in Johannesburg, and indeed I got a lot of pleasure from socializing and working with locals and festival visitors. If it were not for this event, I would never have met all these wonderful people.

Going to Johannesburg, I realized that I could not predict what the location would look like. Therefore, I decided to take with me the background, the light and everything I needed. And did not lose. On-site conditions were disgusting: in the underground parking lot, crowded with people, it is simply impossible to make a good, calm, thoughtful portrait. So my neutral gray background turned out to be ideal in order to impartially show the original style and personality of the characters. By the way, about the heroes: I chose people who seemed to me extraordinary in their appearance or how they stayed. Residents of Johannesburg have their own style, in which references to modern pop culture and African fashion, elements of the 80s hip-hop and uniforms of British colonists are guessed. It seems to me that the brightness of their style is a reaction to the beige deformity of the post-industrial look of Johannesburg: everyone who looks unusual, fancy and rebellious is welcomed here.