A2 (42x60cm) Edition of 10, A3 (37,5x25cm) Edition of 15 - Archival inks on Hahnemühle PhotoRag 308gsm.
Ottery Reformatory, Smoke Break,
Cape Town 2003
The Ottery Reformatory as it was known has alway been on the fringes of my awareness on account of my brother working there for many years as a councillor for boys who were too young to serve a sentence at adult institutions. I volunteered to document a Shakespeare literacy programme lead by the Independent Theatre Movement of South Africa (ITMSA) where the boys were trained to perform parts of Julius Caesar and Orthello.
Here the boys are on a break smoking a ‘skelme entjie‘ (a secret cigarette) which happens to be a ‘tabak pilletjie’ a cigarette rolled with newspaper. As a place of healing and reformation, it is one of the few long standing institutions that has consistently provided recourse to training and life skills to this marginalised group of youth at risk in South Africa. The hopeful outlook of the institution and those who lead it offer a vital lifeline to these boys.
