Sascha J Bachmann | dieFotositzung

Through Windhoek as a Passenger

During my first time in Namibia 2018, mainly in Windhoek, I captured moments and impressions from the daily life as I do in Berlin.
I love those seemingly inconspicuous image scenes which seem like they are not important. Normally I wait for those moments. Sometimes I can feel them coming without knowing what it would be concrete.
However being a foreign white woman from Europe, my options were limited. I was advised by locals not walk alone through the streets of Windhoek with my camera. I was not able to give my muse that space so I had to think of another way to document my impressions.
Instead of waiting for the images to form in front of my camera I became the passenger. It was a challenge to practice photography through the windows of a driving car.
As the passenger I only had split seconds to frame the scenes moving by. I saw: businessmen in their suits and shiny shoes; meticulously groomed poor; street kids begging for food or money; workers doing their jobs; car guards jumping at the opportunity to look after your vehicle whenever we parked; people in colorful traditional clothes opposed to branded and trendy western fashion; workers of all collars hogging the shade, escaping the sun, under the few acacia trees left in the city; middle class and the upper class striving for protection in streets lined with impenetrably high boundary walls, crowned with razor wire and electric fencing, only broken by a single gate, while some were manned by lonely security guards; people walking long distances in the heat with no public transport; a single windmill lost in the city – usually only found on farms for pumping water; and most curiously, the realization to be constantly observed while observing through my lens.
Strangely, by photographing from the safety of the car, the walls and windows became my own boundary walls to the population. 
PS: Thanks so much Kirsten!

Windhoek Suburbia

Townhouses still in construction – very close together with high boundary walls, security electric fencing systems, razor wire and security gates. …in the hope of staying safe.

 

A car stands in the middle of the dried river. During the rainy season, the river can flood so much that even parts of the road could be washed away.

A Windmill for pumping water behind high boundary walls and electric security fences with razor wire – seldom to see this in the city.

Windhoek Lunchtime