Zwelethu Mthethwa

Zwelethu Mthethwa's photo portraits were interesting in content, and well-executed, but the stories he had surrounding those images were far more compelling to me.

Just another example of the stories behind the work being more interesting than the work allows, than the images speak for themselves. That's the whole reason I started drifting away from taking images in the first place. The experience, the performative aspect of taking pictures wasn't coming through in the images. The experience and the image were so different, it was difficult to reconcile them.

I feel that may have been one of the driving elements in Zwelethu's branch out to making videos. They certainly had a perception/reality, image/subtext dialogue built into them. It was interesting to see this expansion into video. Zwelethu's portraits are so traditional, with so much historical foundation, his video works seemed to be by a different artist.

This is where I find myself now... at this crossroads where photography can't (or maybe I can't make it) carry the message I need, and my skills in other disciplines are mediocre, unrefined, and sophomoric.