Joburg is a place of extremes
Where we stay you see the most expensive cars but travel just a bit and people are living like this.

Now I don’t shoot these images for fun.
I shoot them during trips to also show another side of a city or county.

We gave the children some soccer balls and a little bit of money (after). The family was incredibly friendly and loved to talk about live. They were not sad but proud. This was their place.

Do remember to put it into perspective that 130 years ago this was all green and grass land and people were living in huts. Still as a European it hurts my soul and heart to see people living like this. But it did surprise me that they were absolutely not complaining. This was their place and they were proud of it. And the soccer balls were awesome 😉

We’ve seen a lot already during the trip but this will for always stay with me.

Here some of the images. And just think about this and the proud family when you complain the next time when you’re out off peanut butter or your partner/parents bought the wrong brand.

Although the internet is a real problem here we do try to update you guys with new images.

Today my favorite images from the hop on hop off tour through Joburg and Soweto. It’s incredibly impressive to see the literally huge contrast between rich and poor. You might think “Frank we have that in our city too” and I agree but where we are often used to “some” homeless people and loads of middle class and rich people the contrast in Joburg is very extreme.

In the area with our hotel you see very expensive cars, a huge modern mall and wonderful streets. Walk around a bit and you can already see the contrast. Take the tour and just drive through the old centre and you are confronted with scenes that very much reminded me of the more ran down areas of New York. Now continue to Soweto and you can see the Beverly Hills of soweto the middle class and the lower class.

The lower class is terrible. People living on the street right in the middle of their own garbage with animals running around freely. Some have electricity some have water but not all. This is really something you can read about but when you experience it there really are absolutely no words to describe it. There are cities just made out of garbage and people living in situations you can’t imagine.

I never ever in all the places we visited we saw such a shocking difference. Hearing the stories from the student uprising at the Hector Pieterson square just takes away all the good feelings you might have left after the tour.

The “cool” part?

These people are proud, very friendly and if you show interest in them you will be treated like a friend. Not a tourist. People will tell you somethings have changed their view on the world…. Joburg will make you realize that even when you don’t have any money to get nice food you are still living like a king compared to these people and you won’t hear them complain.

Disclaimer

I don’t take these photos as “entertainment” I don’t believe in “let’s shoot some homeless people and get cool shots” I shoot these images with a lot of mixed feelings and show them pure to also show the other side of Joburg and not just the shiny one.