Photos by Terrie Leysath / Grahamstown South Africa / March 2000
Click on photos to see enlargements. Photos copyright 2000, Terrie Leysath.

I began photographing my siblings at the age of nine with my first camera, purchased by selling Christmas cards door to door. Long distance family road trips led to longer trips abroad. In early 2000 I was living in South Africa, having set up an acupuncture clinic for the Xhosa tribal people, who had lived under apartheid rule. I began photographing the Xhosa people, still living apart from the white Europeans in the impoverished townships.

The photographed faces reveal openess and apprehension, gratitude and defiance: the spirit of a people who for decades struggled to assert their equality and dignity.

Photos copyright 2000, Terrie Leysath.