A day in the life of South Africa

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©YOU Magazine 2004

The call went out to anybody with a camera. We were invited to take pictures on May 26, 1982 to portray "A day in the life of South Africa". In preparation I scouted areas around the city that I thought were appropriate to the theme. I remembered some time before seeing a house in an area of town that was generally in disrepair. It had an outside wall painted like the (former) South African flag. As the day drew closer, I searched the area but could not find it. I began to think the house was a figment of my imagination. Finally I found the house several blocks from where I had been looking, and knew this was one image I simply had to capture. The day arrived, dark and overcast with occasional squalls of rain. I waited in vain for the weather to clear, but finally went to the site in the gloomy late afternoon and took several pictures with my camera mounted on a tripod. 36,000 photographs were submitted. Only 300 were chosen. My picture of the house was chosen for the cover of the book that was subsequently published. Twenty years later, YOU magazine, in its April 29, 2004 edition, published an article "Celebrating 10 years of a New South Africa". The piece featured a picture of former President Nelson Mandela relaxing with a copy of "A day in the life of South Africa".

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