//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
It’s taken me a long time to get round to editing these photographs. I took them in February at Cape Town’s infamous Robben Island. The former prison is now a tourist destination and I choose to spend my birthday there.
Of course I knew it wouldn’t be a fun trip – but I hadn’t expected quite the impact it had on me.
The first thing hits you on arrival is the stench – sea birds stink! Then there’s the stark contrast of the scenic landscape of Cape Town’s mountains in the distance, the sunshine and the sea versus the stark prison buildings, the barb wire, the cameras. And an overwhelming sense of futility.
Our guide spoke with a passion, someone keen to tell the story of the place which set men like Nelson Mandela to work on bashing stones and we met his jailer – a man who has since sold books about the friendship he struck up with his captive.
I was glad to have made the journey – but I never want to revisit. What a place, what a waste of human endeavour. I can understand why the museum carries the strapline ‘a symbol of the human spirit over adversity‘.
The rest of my pictures are in a Flickr album here.
Dim Sum Digital 