REFLECTIONS
MOPP (Month of People's Photography) was initiated by a group of independent photographers whose intention was to create not only a platform for their own work but a social interaction with photography outside of the bounds of dictated media.
Although reluctant to be named in their altruistic respect of the collective power individuals, Abdul Dube, Isgak Stemmet and Francois Rubenheimer are the driving force behind the collective. A cooperation between three cape-street-intellectual
Their debut exhibition, which had no theme, was held on Green Market Square. This square was once the heart of the Cape Town and in many ways with all its controversies remains at the centre of the cities melting pot of euro-afro-safro eccentricities.
It seems in the time of apartheid there was a lot of time spent NOT saying or talking or reflecting about a lot. It seems now that we spend too much time focusing on saying, talking and reflecting. The hype around talking and reflection in south Africa is somewhat misplaced in its direction of evolutional thought. We forget to see the positivity and we get bogged down in our own nostalgia and inherited anger, forgetting to honour the beauty around us that is in all of human, landscape, beast and bush.
Photography oftentimes honours the beauty in these earthly details and MOPP's focus is on OPEN exhibitions that are OPEN to all photographers and FREE for ANYONE to view.
Home Sweet Street is an excellent theme for this years exhibition focus. The MOPP crew traditionally open the exhibition with a festive eve and main exhibition of selected works from all participating photographers. Their real street cred falls into place when your central cape town coffee shops and trendy restaurants bear a colourful testimony to the talents of local capetonian photographers.
Mandy Schreiber
writer/photographer/creative
http://purplewhizzball.blogspot
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science." Albert Einstein
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