On Tuesday, people funneled in and out of an opening reception for "Sugar Cane" a photography exhibit by South African Zwelethu Mthethwa, on display until March 9 at the John Hope Franklin Center.
The seven-photo exhibit features various South African sugar cane workers in the fields, wearing loose clothing to protect their skin from pesticides. Initially, Mthethwa was struck by the draped clothing, seeing it to be similar to high fashion.
His photographs reflect this high fashion vision, as he poses the workers, often dirtied in mud, like models on stacks of sugar cane. Earlier in his career, Mthethwa photographed his subjects in black and white. He switched to color after realizing the added dimension it brings to the subjects.
"It's an interesting show, because Duke has such a valuable documentary studies program," said Diego Cortez, the show's curator. "It reflects other genres than just reportage."
Cortez said he was moved by Mthethwa's work years ago after seeing previous exhibits in New York and Europe.
"While black-and-white documentary photography has often been attached to a political agenda, using color enabled Mthethwa to provide a greater sense of truth to his subjects, visualizing their own well-being, their happiness, their sense of pride, their true character as living beings," said Cortez, who has been a guest curator for exhibits at the Franklin Center for eight years.
Mthethwa studied photography at the University of Cape Town, and was the first non-white admitted to the program. Later he would come to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship to study photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Now back in South Africa, he was unable to attend the exhibit's opening reception.
For more information on the exhibit, visit the John Hope Franklin Center website.