Lindokuhle Sobekwa: I Carry Her Photo With Me

Lindokuhle Sobekwa began this project after finding a family portrait with his sister ZiyandaÆs face cut out. He describes her as a secretive, rebellious and rough presence, and recalls the dark day when she chased him and he was hit by a car: she disappeared hours later and returned only a decade later, ill. By this time Sobekwa had become a photographer and realized the family had no picture of her: ôOne day I saw this beautiful light coming in through the window shining on her face. I lifted up the camera to catch the moment and she shot me an evil look and said: æStop! If you take that picture IÆm going to kill you!Æ So I lowered my camera. I still wish I had taken the shot.ö Ziyanda died soon after.

Employing a scrapbook aesthetic with handwritten notes, I Carry Her Photo With Me is a means for Sobekwa to engage both with the memory of his sister and the wider implications of such disappearancesùa troubling part of South AfricaÆs history. The book complements his wider work on fragmentatio