A difficult issue to address is the critique of the gaze of the white male photographer in Africa. You know, it’s a truism. Many people are going to look at your work in the context of your identity. It’s intractable. Your gaze is politicised. How do you feel about that?

 Well, Goldblatt photographed Afrikaners … As an Englishspeaking Jew, who was he to photograph an ethnic group he’s not part of ? And if you extend that question, it gets more clearly absurd. Are straight people only allowed to photograph straights, are lesbians only allowed to photograph lesbians? I was born here. My language is an African language, it’s not spoken elsewhere. This is my landscape. It’s like telling someone of Korean descent, whose parents have been in the US for three generations, that they’re actually Korean. It’s absurd. I don’t claim to have the final word on African culture. I’m only interpreting and showing the things that are around me.

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