They say ‘every picture tells a story”, and Peter Mckenzie has spent his entire career as a photographer telling these stories through his camera lens, including how cities can be inhabited and used.

Mckenzie delivered his perspective during his presentation with was hosted by the DUT Urban Futures Centre where he portrayed the image of South Africa and how its cities can be inhabited and used. Mckenzie’s pictures give an insight of the contemporary South African city whilst challenging the viewer to think deep and differently about their city.

Mckenzie who is the Chief Photographer for the Pan African Press Agency Panapress says his pictures are portraying how cities are still underdeveloped. “Its just not only about capturing the picture but more about your mindset. When you are about to tell a story about a community, you have to go to the community and let them know and hope that they allow you to take those photographs. Therefore, your mindset must change. You must think out of the box,” he said.

Mckenzie’s display shows images of shacks, infrastructure and lifestyle of the communities he took pictures of.

Although the photographs portrayed different imageries of the cities, there were different views about them (pictures) from the audience. Some of the people in the audience felt the pictures were more of a negative perspective of South African cities, whilst others saw it as a work of art portraying perfection of the imperfect images.

However, Mckenzie says that once the work goes out, he hopes to have a text version that people can read and project. “At some point, this will be more than just images and there’s also a possibility of adding music,” he said.

– Noxolo Memela

Pictured: Peter Mckenzie and Rachel Matteau, a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the DUT Urban Futures Centre, further engaging about the photographs.