Comments on: The Matric Queens of the Cape Flats http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683 Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:22:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: fred hatman http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-190 fred hatman Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:49:27 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-190 I’m very good, Chris. Love this blogging gig. Just wish it had been around 162 years ago when I went into snoozepapers!

How’s life on Planet Imod? :)

]]> By: Chris M http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-187 Chris M Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:25:48 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-187 Really really stunning!

How you been keeping mate?

]]> By: fred hatman http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-186 fred hatman Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:01:39 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-186 @Luna (2) I completely agree with that. For many it probably represents one of the apexes of life achievement, right up there with marriage and bearing a child. But, honestly, it is a culture quite alien to me… and I simply don’t know!

]]> By: fred hatman http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-185 fred hatman Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:55:36 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-185 @Luna You make a good point about the pressure to spend. But I suspect – and I really don’t know – that the opportunity to rise above the mundaneness of the reality of life on the Cape Flats, and the attendant poverty, is attractive. It’s a chance to shine and feel good in an otherwise quite dreary life. The juxtaposition between the for-one-night-only glamour of the matrics and their very rudimentary environment is very powerful. And there is still a sadness, don’t you think, in Araminta’s amazing portraits?

]]> By: Luna http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-184 Luna Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:52:28 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-184 Me again… thinking more, and maybe I’m being silly – maybe the matric dance does mean so much more to these girls – for whom it has not always just been a given that they will get to/through matric. Maybe they have every right to splash out on this occasion, because it is such a huge achievement… something “their parents and grandparents rarely had the opportunity to do”.
Still thinking… :-)

]]> By: Luna http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-183 Luna Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:40:49 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-183 Stunning pics – really well done, and beautiful girls (and brave guys!) but it does leave me wondering about the matric dance, and the pressure that is put on these girls and their families to spend an absolute fortune – on the dress, the hair, the makeup, the shoes, the limo, the whole image – just for one night, usually in the school hall, with the same people you’ve been seeing every day for the past many years. I understand the celebration and the dressing up, but it seems that people are expected to go waaaayy beyond their means for this. Does this leave room for the girl who makes her own dress, borrows shoes and jewellery, does her own hair and makeup and gets dropped off by her parents or partner’s parents?
But still, incredible images indeed, even from my soap box.

]]> By: Tweets that mention The Matric Queens of the Cape Flats| fred hatman -- Topsy.com http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683&cpage=1#comment-182 Tweets that mention The Matric Queens of the Cape Flats| fred hatman -- Topsy.com Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:26:09 +0000 http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=683#comment-182 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Fred Hatman. Fred Hatman said: New blog post: The Matric Queens of the Cape Flats http://bit.ly/hm96o [...]

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