A Notebook of Traces
The book “I carry Her photo with Me” is South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s reaction to his sister’s disappearance.
One day when Lindokuhle Sobekwa and his sister Ziyanda were young, she chased him in the street and he was hit by a car. Zindaya disappeared shortly after the accident and returned 10 years later, ill to the point that she died soon after. The book is the photographer’s attempt to trace her enigmatic presence in his family’s life.
Using a scrapbook aesthetic and handwritten notes, the photographer traces his wanderings as he tries to bring together the puzzle of his sister’s journey, during the long time she was missing. Starting from a found family photograph where Ziyanda’s face is missing, the book also addresses the wider implications of such disappearances in South Africa’s history, and the ramifications of apartheid and colonialism across all levels of society.
