Now well-known for his Alternative Kids collection, Nxumalo explores in depth the issues and adversities facing today's youth.

"We are known as Generation Disappointment, struggling with our identity and trying to understand what we want. I believe it is more than that. Although we informally talk about them when we are together, nothing really comes out of it," he says.

This photographic collection portrays dark, somewhat troubled youngsters who in their quest to be identified turn to punk-rock culture in Soweto.

As seen on TV is a group exhibition that opened last Thursday of new artists and their chosen work.

Nxumalo was invited to showcase work from his Damned collection of portraits, that focuses on landscapes and friends, at a Melrose Arch gallery founded by the first black woman to own an art gallery, Thandi Sibisi.

Nxumalo is also shortly off to the DRC, where 10 selected artists from around the continent will be mentored in their art form.

A crit of their work by independent judges will then lead up to an annual photo festival around Africa.

Nxumalo also took part in the second and third sessions of the gathering held in Mali and Ethiopia.

His extraordinary on-camera viewpoints are inspired by the late courageous documentary photographer Ernest Cole. "My work is the prototype of what Cole did. The only difference is that we are in different struggles," he said.

Nxumalo's career began in 2006 at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, where he later became a lecturer.

He is working on growing his photographic agency and conquering the African Diaspora through his lens.

- This article was first published in the printed newspaper on 1 October 2012

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Wed Jun 19 02:21:42 SAST 2013 ::

Oct 2, 2012

RobinH

This is so interesting. I recently saw a documentary on punk music in Africa and it was fascinating.
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Oct 2, 2012

MommaC

Why do young people always think they are inventing something new? We had the same questions and fears. Hells bells, when do you think punk rock originated?
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Oct 2, 2012

Mokwepa

kemang o?
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Oct 2, 2012

RobinH

MommaC: I don't think it goes about when"punk rock" originated. The way I see it, "punk", as an attitude, developed in different ways and at different paces in various parts of the world. Billy Idol and Iggy Pop were around long before the British Sex Pistols and The Clash and so on. Because of the "cultural boycott", SA "punk" with bands like the Radio Rats, Safari Suits, Housewives Choice and Zeesen Radio came quite a bit later. So chronology is not the way to look T this. I prefer to see it as a "f u c k y o u" attitude w.r.t. accepted standards and mores, and is not bound by period, place or genre. Viva the middle finger!!!
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Oct 2, 2012

WarrenG

Kwaito Punk Jazz
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Oct 2, 2012

RobinH

WarrenG: Wonderful concept.
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Oct 2, 2012

Tabza325is

@RobinH, My question is will the generation today come up with thier own culture or develop a new culture, Hiphop, Pop and Punk comes from our generation, everything the youth is doing today is a recycle of what we have done thus I understand were MommaC is coming from. This young generation is lacking innovation and have been recycling what's been around for a while now, one day when I have a child I don't want them to dress and act like I did when I was a teen, today I play hiphop, kwaito, house and guess what the kid next door plays the same music as I do, what is a 14 year old doing listing to a 30 year old man( Lil Wayne) and dressed like him also...
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Oct 2, 2012

RobinH

Tabza: what I'm saying is that these are mere lables arbitrarily attached. According to me view, the punk attitude leads to innovation on a variety of fronts, whether one chooses to label it as HipHop, or whatever. If you listen to guys like John Zorn, he covers the entire pallette, from Yiddish kletzmer based stuff, through hardcore metal, through so-called avant-garde. He is influenced by everything he encounters, but he doesn't follow the model, rather actually pushing the boundaries of whatever format he is using. That is what I am talking about.
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Oct 2, 2012

MommaC

RobinH

The 'up yours' attitude is even older than that. Think Morrison.
My point is that the youth have been rebelling against the system for ever. This isn't some 'new' occurrence and their search for meaning and identity are no different to what young people have been going through for all eternity.
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Oct 2, 2012

Tabza325is

@RobinH, This is why I wonder if the current youth lacks innovation or do they have it, by reclycling and going through the same phase we went through, listen to how they express thier culture through music, they are doing the same thing a 30 year old is doing meaning they are immulating and not innovating, Immagine if John Zorn had immulated his parents and played classic music or Jazz, I grew up playing a lot of video games and Zorn's game theory sound were employed in game programming, I studied a bid of game theory and programming which I've used some of his sounds, he was an innovative instrumantalist.
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