Shape of Joburg

WORDS Nechama Brodie

Nechama Brodie reviews Patrick de Mervelec’s new photographic book and exhibition about Johannesburg’s architecture and history. After the launch and exhibition in Joburg earlier this year, it now comes to Cape Town from 21 August to 7 September at the Erdmann Contemporary.

“Johannesburg is not usually regarded as a world-class architectural reference – but it should be,” said Elisabeth Barbier, the new ambassador of France in SA; and now, she continued, it would be, “thanks to your work, Patrick.”

Elisabeth was speaking at the launch of French photographer Patrick de Mervelec’s exhibition and new book, Johannesburg Architecture and Heritage. The a landscape-format collection of Patrick’s images of central Johannesburg’s buildings and cityscapes have captions written by the encyclopaedic architect and historian Clive Chipkin. 

The artist as outsider   

Earlier, before the speeches, I’d been engaged in a sidewalk conversation (outside David Krut Projects) with a radio host and her colleague, about South African artists’ shameful failure to capture their own habitat – or, at least, secure funding to do so. Comments were made about Eric Miyeni’s foray into black-and-white photography in Paris (for A Letter from Paris, a collection of pictures and essays published in 2010). 

Patrick is not, of course, to be classed in the same category: he is a remarkable veteran of his craft and has produced several exhibitions or collections about South Africa (where he has lived for some time) and South Africans. 

Still, the question: why do we need to see Johannesburg through the eyes of a foreigner? 

Architect Fanuel Motsepe (who has a much fancier pedigree than is included here, and has a special interest in heritage work) touched on the issue in his own speech: where is Patrick coming from, given that he is not South African? This is, in part, a literal allusion to a camera’s point-of-view – many of the images in the book are shot from street level, from the vantage point of a pedestrian. Fanuel, who wrote an introduction for the book, added that Patrick’s photographs also “engage[d] readers” to enter into a discourse or a dialogue or a discovery, to “share in the passion Patrick has for the city.” 

To do so, Fanuel continued, Patrick had received little support from local (municipal, provincial, national) authorities. To wit, the book and accompanying exhibition were largely funded by French multinationals.  

Time travel

Patrick’s images – some of which so accurately capture the moment of looking up that you almost feel a crick developing in your neck – should be seen as part of a larger movement, to document the ebb and flow of styles and shapes and names that form Johannesburg. 

Clive’s notes capture this – the building formerly known as… / repurposed for… / demolished to make way for… He describes Jeppe Street as having the “extraordinary quality of Johannesburg’s streetscapes where every building is an entity unrelated to its neighbour”.

Juxtaposition is essential to navigation, requiring the skills of a time traveller. One of my favourite (printed) works on show – capturing Diagonal Street’s looming 1984 Diamond Building against the sky – was titled only “Carmel Building”, for the modest 1897 Edwardian rooming building just visible in the foreground. In the book, the caption (to my slight disappointment) emphasised the shiny 1980s structure.  

Clive is, among other things, the author of the two most important books ever published on architecture in Johannesburg: Johannesburg Style, which goes from the 1880s to the 1960s (and is sadly out of print – prized second-hand copies can be hunted down through good book dealers); and Johannesburg Transition, which follows the lines of the city from the 1950s to the millennium.  

On a previous tour through the city, with Clive and other heritage experts, I remember him saying (as we drove past the derelict hulk of Chrysler House, with its tiers of broken windows) how he wished the decaying buildings would be documented before someone – the council, developers, he didn’t say –demolished them. In a sense this is why Patrick’s photographs are so valuable, as part of the historical record. 

In turn Clive’s captions, sometimes sparse, sometimes wry, add perspective to the camera’s lens and help make sense of a collection of images that seems (in book format) to have been presented without any specific map or timeline or narrative in place. Patrick’s book, truly, needs to be seen as part of a much bigger picture. 

Johannesburg: Architecture and History by Patrick de Mervelec is published by In Camera Art Publications for R495 (softcover) or R695 (hardcover).

The exhibition opening and book launch is from 6pm to 8pm on Wednesday 21 August. There is a walkabout on Saturday 24 August at 11am. The exhibition runs until Saturday 7 September. RSVP to the Erdmann Contemporary, 63 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town, 021 422 2762, galleryinfo@mweb.co.za, www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za.