Photgrapher / Justin Keene / @justinkeene_

Bio

Justin Keene is a self-taught documentary photographer based between South Africa and the UK. He left his corporate career to pursue documentary projects in forming an identity as a South Africa-focused artist; he continues to develop his practice on the MA Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales in Cardiff. Justin’s work ultimately looks to find his own place in modern South Africa by opening up an engaged social dialogue with the country’s youth. His two ongoing documentary projects, It Must be Built from Ashes and Being for the Other respectively explore urban and rural encounters with changing visual representations and social associations. His work has previously been featured online for It’s Nice That, Life Framer and Aint-Bad, and in group shows and publications: Life Framer; BJP Portrait of Britain; New European Photography x GUP; The Lucie Foundation Los Angeles; The Independent Photographer, and the upcoming Photo Vogue Festival ‘A Glitch in the System,’ in Milan.

www. justinkeene.com

About the project

Justin’s project It Must be Built from Ashes centres on young people growing up in Mitchells Plain - one of Cape Town’s notorious areas overridden by gangsterism and crime. The work attempts to confront the negative representation of Mitchells Plain’s youth as portrayed by mainstream media, depicting young people searching for an identity outside of crime. The history of Mitchells Plain and its geographic location are significant to its sense of community; the area originated as a relocation area for people removed from Cape Town’s inner-city. Justin’s work draws on this history to create an intimate social dialogue with the people of Mitchells Plain, providing a voice for people who often struggle to be heard. Given the importance of South Africa’s historic documentation through ‘struggle photography,’ Justin’s work seeks to productively renew the country’s visual economy in contemporary contexts by providing an autonomous image-making process for the people he photographs. He works largely with medium-format film cameras as a way of slowing down the pace of his practice and to develop more personal relationships with the people photographed.