Technical AssignmentBy Trust Matsilele

Car that is not moving but using camera technique to

demonstrate movement

Wide depth of field

Small depth of field

Fast shatter speed

Slow shatter speed

BEING AN IMMIGRANT

NJONJO

I I specialised on the life of an immigrant for my photo story. His name Joe Njonjo from Mwenezi district, Masvingo province in Zimbabwe. He passed his ordinary levels and could not find a job and joined the great trek down south. As he ran away from economic decay he came face to face with a community that never cared if he had a story to tell that wanted him back to his home country. I was motivated by the fact that I personally have been a victim of xenophobia and I was victimised in this area I thought to focus on. On this photo story it was really a reflection on how things have changed and how my fellow colleagues are adjusting to life especially

after gruesome pictures that filled most part of last year. I was also motivated by the desire to understand what informs the local communities to make conclusions such as that, “they are taking our jobs, they are taking our wives and they are taking our houses”. Those are three myths which have extensively fed the local mindsets and largely this role has been played by the media, specifically the Daily Sun. These myths led to scores of

deaths and displacements to an extend that even locals with a complexion which suggests otherwise also fell victim and some even died. My other motivation was to demystify these myths and make sure that locals

understand that these attacks are only symbolic of underlying problems not only the African publics but to the global poor. As prominent comedian Chris Rock lamented, xenophobia was not black on black but broke on

broke. Challenges that I faced was a community that has developed suspicions about journalists hence taking pictures required a great deal of convincing. Some who knew my background on journalism wanted me to

convince them that the images I was capturing would not appear in the newspaper. The other challenges I faced was following an individual whose family was not prepared to be part of my photo story hence I had to convince the wife to be part of my introduction and promised that my work was not going to compromise her husband .

This story follows a sequence of events and I thought to start my work as a flashback, the sequence is as follows, from work the husband is welcomed by wife and child, from home goes to a market area where he buys chicken legs that are sold by a fellow immigrant, from there goes to a house cum tavern, goes to sleep, wake up in the morning and takes a bath then join the trek to look for the job. My story closes with this immigrant having

secured a day’s job and the process is continuously to some throughout the year.

• THE END

• THANKS ANTHONY AND EVERYONE ELSE TO EDDIE ,OLA