"I have fallen" photographs of the white poor exhibition launch

Mother Teresa once said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.”

The Sandton Central Management District (SCMD), in collaboration with AAW Art Project Management (AAW), is using its exhibition infrastructure to launch the thought-proving work of local photographer Nadine Hutton. entitled “ I have fallen”, the exhibition will take to the streets of Sandton Central on 28 July 2009.

The journey towards hosting Nadine Hutton’s exhibition of ‘I have fallen” as part of the Sandton Central Arts Programme, started some two years ago when Hutton presented her concept to AAW. Hutton presented an ironic, sometimes unexpectedly wry, even humorous and intimate portrait of a community of poor white people. The concept was intended for outdoor display in a wealthy and a poor district of Joburg,” says Lesley Perkes of AAW.

This exhibition looks for answers to the questions: What is poverty? And what is it’s relationship to race?

White poverty is not new, or specific to South Africa. Yet perceptions of who can or cannot be poor (or rich) persist in the mind of many of her citizens.

In a country where the gap between rich and poor is ever-increasing, poverty in South Africa no longer has an exclusively black face. More and more white people are joining the ranks of the poor on a daily basis. Poverty is becoming less of a racial issue and more of a South African problem.
Having been deprived of their previously ‘privileged’ position, the white poor are now seeking ways to adapt or at least survive.

As a photojournalist Nadine Hutton’s interest is directed towards in-depth documentation of stories that may not necessarily seem newsworthy. She tells stories that are a neglected part of the process of the last decade and which have important implications for the understanding of this country. Much of her work is concerned with social issues.

Born in 1976, Nadine Hutton was chief photographer of the Mail & Guardian for many years, was awarded the Ruth First Fellowship and is now a freelance photographer, filmmaker and artist-in-residence at the Bag Factory Artist Studios. http://www.2point8.co.za

The images will be also be on show in Alexandra at the Alexsan Kopano centre, Corner Selbourne and 12th Ave from 9.30am until 4pm, Monday 27 July 2009

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