Archival release of unique photographs

The photographer is releasing a limited collection of photographs from her personal archives, which span more than 20 years of work, from 1993 to 2004.

The photographs are full frame and untouched. Although they’re not editioned, they are one-offs, and all are signed and dated.

This is an exclusive opportunity to acquire work produced and printed by a highly respected photographer during a specific time frame in South African history. Some of the photographs have never been exhibited or published.

This collection of unique prints is being sold to cover medical expenses around the recurrence of Tracey’s breast cancer.

Sizes and Prices
8 x 10" (20,32 x 25,4cm) – R1000.00
6 x 8" (15,24 x 20,32cm) – R700.00
5 x 7" (12,7 x 17,78cm) – R500.00

Postage and handling
For domestic deliveries (within South Africa), please add R15 per order (up to 3 prints).
For international deliveries (elsewhere in the world), please add R45 per order (up to 3 prints).

Collection point in Cape Town
If you live in or near Cape Town, you can collect your order from Kirsty at the Association for Visual Arts Gallery at 35 Church Street.

Orders
Please contact Tracey with the prints you have selected at photos@traceyderrick.co.za or 082 256 0264 and she will respond with banking details and arrangements for delivery.

SOLD

Project 1 ‘Inauguration’, Cape Town, 9 May 1994

‘Today we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.’
This was how South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, opened his address to the people of Cape Town, delivered on the Grand Parade, on the occasion of his inauguration. Tracey Derrick was there.

Project 2 ‘The Red Ochre People’, Kaokoveld, 1995

When Tracey heard that the Namibian government intended to dam the Cunene River, a project that would threaten the local ecosystem and impact severely on the wellbeing of the semi-nomadic Himba of the region, she travelled there to document a lifestyle that looked in danger of disappearing forever. Today, thanks largely to the fierce protests of the Himba chiefs; the dam still hasn’t gone beyond the planning stages.
Photographs from this collection have been exhibited in New York and various South African cities.

Project 3 ‘Eye Inside’, Malmesbury, 2007

Tracey spent over a year documenting the inmates at the Malmesbury Women’s prison. Photographs from this collection were exhibited in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
‘Most of the women I met are there because they needed to put bread on the table for their families or they’re caught up in the traditional patriarchal system of power and gangs that comes from our long history of exploitation,’ says Tracey.
• Tracey later ran an eight-week photography course in the prison, teaching the women basic camera skills.

Project 4 Portraits, various locations, 1993-2010

Project 5 ‘Basic Necessity’, Cape Town, 1997

Tracey’s honest and empathetic portrayals of the people in this ‘scorned, marginalised and persecuted’ industry have been exhibited locally at the Grahamstown Festival and in Cape Town, and internationally in Paris, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
‘Everybody sells themselves in some way,’ says Tracey. ‘These people are courageous; they laugh at themselves, laugh at the society they live in. They are wicked and I love that.’

Project 6 ‘EarthWorks’, the Swartland, 2004

‘Ten years into the new democracy, it seems that those who work to feed us in South Africa have yet to reap any benefits from the new dispensation,’ said Tracey of her work documenting the lives of farm labourers in the Western Cape agricultural belt known as the Swartland.
Despite the new post-apartheid regime, many practices of abuse and exploitation still persist on the farms, Tracey observes, and the community must wrestle with other problems too: land tenure, poor housing, low wages, racism and change.
Photographs from this collection have been exhibited locally in Cape Town and Riebeek Kasteel, and internationally in Germany, the UK, France and Japan. They have also appeared in various publications.

Project 7 ‘Her and me’, various locations, 1990-2005

‘Sometimes I wonder if she was my shadow or I was hers,’ says Tracey about Salvador, the crossbreed street dog who became her constant companion for 15 years. ‘We criss-crossed Southern Africa together, slept, ate, walked, ran and played together, on mountains, beaches and deserts, through rivers, in seas and rain, in cities, on farms and in rural villages. Sal taught me love, bravery, integrity, fun, loyalty, the ever-present moment of now.’
Photographs from this collection have been exhibited in Cape Town and Riebeek Kasteel.

Project 8 ‘Hope from Home’, Cape Town, 1997

In 1994, Tracey travelled to warn-torn areas in Mozambique and Malawi to witness the return of refugees to their homes. ‘It was an emotional experience to be with people who were finally returning to where they belonged,’ she says. ‘They returned with little, but were filled with hope for a new future.’
Back in Cape Town, Tracey documented the lives of refugees from all over Africa. ‘The refugees I met were like us - they had similar needs, and their priorities in life are universal, like wanting to live securely in a comfortable home.’
Photographs from this collection went on solo exhibition at the Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town.

Project 9 Landscapes, various locations, 1993-2004

Project 10 ‘Still Moving’, Mozambique, 1994

Mozambique’s first democratic elections in 1994 bought hope of stability to a people who had been dispersed by decades of war. ‘My general impression was one of a people in transit – a nomadism of people searching,’ says Tracey of her two months documenting life in that country. Her photographs, which have been exhibited in Cape Town, show people rebuilding their lives: ‘People retained their sense of humour, mutual support and strong family bonds,’ she recalls. ‘They found the energy to continue among flimsy political promises and trust that the end of gunfire is a reason for optimism that can only carry them forward.’

Project 11 ‘The Waters of Life’, South African townships, 1995-1997

Some 35% of the black population of South Africa belongs to the Independent African Churches, which utilise a combination of Christianity, traditional culture and ancestoral worship. Tracey’s photographs of this, then largely unexplored, area of documentation have been exhibited locally in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, and internationally in Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart and Brussels. In them, she has captured the unique energy and vibrancy of African spirituality during many 24-hour ceremonies.