Johnny Miller : Unequal Scenes

Photographer's Profile:
Johnny Miller is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has extensive networks and knowledge of contemporary African and world issues. His focus is on the urban, cultural, and social issues facing humanity. He has received worldwide acclaim for his project “Unequal Scenes”, an aerial exploration of inequality in South Africa. www.unequalscenes.com

Photo Description 1:
Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course is located along the lush green slopes of the Umgeni River in Durban, South Africa. Almost unbelievably, a sprawling informal settlement exists just meters from the tee for the 6 hole. A concrete fence separates the tin shacks from the manicured fairways. In a twist of irony, the golf course is named after an apartheid-era golfer named Sewsunker “Papwa” Sewgolum.

Photo Description 2:
Kya Sands is a violent, desperate informal settlement. Across the street, among leafy trees, shady street corners and swimming pools, you find the middle-class suburb of Bloubosrand. A quick search on Property24 shows that many houses are worth over 1 million rand. The contrast shows the proximity and challenges to creating aformal South Africa, 23 years after apartheid.

Photo Description 3:
The shacks in this informal settlement reach right to the very edge of the wealthy neighbourhood in a dense jumble of tin roofs. In fact, even though the total area of Imizamo Yethu is much smaller than the whole Hout Bay valley, the two have roughly the same population, 15538 vs. 17329. (City of Cape Town Census 2011)

Photo Description 4:
Mexico is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The wealthiest 1% of the population earns 21% of the nation’s total income, a percentage higher than any other country in the world. In Santa Fe, land is at such a premium that developers have begun to carve out housing estates from the surrounding slum areas.

Photo Description 5:
“It has been estimated that the richest 10 percent of the population of Nairobi accrues 45.2 percent of income, and the poorest 10 percent only 1.6 percent,” according to a 2009 study on urban poverty by Oxfam. Loresho is a suburb where wealthy celebrities live cheek to jowl with the poorest, most downtrodden slum dwellers.