Jozi walking part 5 - Worldwide Instawalk

This is part 5 in a series on walking tours of Johannesburg. While other cities also offer guided tours, Jozi is unique in my mind as a place where people will group together, with or without a guide, to visit places that they normally wouldn't. Whether for safety in numbers, unfamiliarity or companionship, it's a thing here.

Instawalkers on the move

Today's worldwide Instawalk meets in Braamfontein. Its a special walk. Only my second, after the Fordsburg amble a few weeks ago, this one is very different. Part of the Worldwide Instawalk instigated by Instagram, it has  attracted photographers all the way from Pretoria. We even have a film crew to shoot a short film of the walk. I am happy to tag along, as I have wanted to shoot Nelson Mandela bridge at night, as well as the harder to reach parts of Newtown.

Nelson Mandela bridge

Last time it was only the four of us: me, Heather, Roy and Allessio from Pretoria. Today there are twenty people. I am finally meeting Uncle Scrooch and Gareth Pon, two of the movers and shakers of the Jozi Instagram scene. This is the first time my digital life spills into real life. I have never met most of these people, but because I follow their photo stream I know quite a bit about their lives.

Almost gone

The crowd is homogenous: kids, hipsters, young couples. Mostly boys. I am the oldest person there by far. There is some delay as we wait for everyone to show up, and for the crew to set up their cameras.

Daytime

When everyone is finally assembled, we walk across Nelson Mandela bridge in the late afternoon light. It's slow going, what with shooting the railway lines below us and the skyline on the opposite side. There is an element of wanting to get the best angle, the most interesting variation on a view, to 'see' a shot that no-one else has noticed. It's a competition of sorts. After a while everyone spreads out, looking for their own points of interest. When there is a good and easy shot, people cluster, but it's easy to get away. It's fun to look for the undiscovered scene.

Getting water from the street mains

We walk down the ramp  into Newtown, past a building site with a lost house, an old villa teetering on the edge of the abyss that will one day be a mall. Cranes loom overhead. The motorway overpass edges the site, cars racing invisibly past. A little further a row of half-demolishd houses, a group of young men siphoning water off a broken mains, then we are in the warehouses of Newtown. A regeneration project of old factories, the area is now home to clubs and graffiti. In honour of the occasion we take a few group shots. Everyone is equipped with holi powder, and, positioned in front of a painted wall, we all jump. In between takes we all go back to shooting the small and the big, the unusual angle, the detail of the place. 

getting ready for the jump

We return to Braamfontein via the bridge, catching the last of the great sunset light. Another photographer has the same idea, a fashion shoot is taking place across from us. A gaggle of girls and guys in skimpy outfits line up on the footpath, touching up make up and waiting their turn. It's a cheap and effective venue, with the colourful uplighters standing in for studio lighting and an unbeatable backdrop of the Jozi CBD. 

Night time

There is a video made by Gareth and Micklas on Vimeo:

More photos can be found in my Flickrstream:

www.flickr.com

You can find an overview of Jozi walks here, my account of a guided walk in Melville here, a Yeoville walk here, another account of instawalking here and my story of photowalking here.