26
B+W
Sabelo Mlangeni first saw
a camera when he was 17. His
fascination with photography
took him to Johannesburg,
where he began to record
the people who cleaned
the streets at night. He
talks to Tom Seymour.
INVISIBLEWOMENFEATURES
abelo Mlangeni grew up in
Wakkerstroom, a small town
surrounded by grasslands and
forests on the KwaZulu-Natal
border of the South African
hinterlands. Wakkerstroom
translates as ‘awake ravine’,
after the massive Uthaka river
that flows near the town. It’s the second
oldest town in Mpumalanga province and is
renowned for the extraordinary birds that
live in the forests and along the banks of the
Uthaka. There are no traffic lights within
30km of the town. Its 7,000 residents, 90 per
cent of whom converse in Zulu, like it that
way. It’s a peaceful, quiet place.›Right Clocking off I.
All images © Sabelo Mlangeni