Artwork  chosen: Unequal Scenes by Johnny Miller. Please click here and view video in addition to the photographs below.

Johnny Miller, a photographer, started the project “unequal scenes” in 2016. Miller uses drone footage to highlight inequality in different countries around the world. On the ground, inequality is often ignored, as it is easy to turn a blind eye due to the physical and social barriers that have been put in place to separate the two different worlds.  However, from a birds-eye view, such as in Miller’s drone photography, one is confronted by the stark division between rich and poor. In his South African series, his work depicts the remnants of apartheid and how legalised segregation has led to architectural separation of communities based on race (Robinson, 2016). Despite the abolition of apartheid in 1994, South Africa still remains one of the most unequal countries in the world (Scott, 2019). Miller emphasises that his art defies the “traditional power structures” that keep the inequalities of South Africa hidden from every direction except from above (Miller, 2018). On a personal note, I feel that I can relate to Miller’s message both from my experiences in my personal and professional life. More specifically, I have encountered severe inequalities during my experiences in clinical practice.

Growing up with the privilege of having medical aid, I had never visited a public hospital or clinic before block rotations and took prompt medical assistance for granted. Working in placements such as Gugulethu Community Health Clinic (GCHC) and ASTRA school, the inequality divide that Miller portrays in his photography was highlighted for me. I have seen patients visit the physiotherapy department accompanied by the person who transported them at a fee or a relative to help mobilise them and enquire about assistive devices they ordered months before and being turned away empty handed, often not for the first time. On another occasion I was confronted by the situation where I had to make a make-shift sanitary pad out of toilet paper and cardboard as the hospital’s stock had run out.

The incident that has resonated with me the most on the topic of inequality was an elderly patient who came in for chronic lower back pain. She arrived at the hospital lugging a heavy suitcase. During the assessment I asked the patient why she was carrying this heavy suitcase with her. She unzipped her bag and one by one she took out a toaster, hairdryer, jewellery, oil and many other of her household essentials. She explained that her son was a drug addict and would steal all her possessions if she left them at home. The police refused to help her with her situation as they were too scared to enter the gang-ridden area that she lives in. As physiotherapists we educate our patients to lift objects in a certain way and to use backpacks instead of a sling bag on one shoulder to distribute the weight and to prevent postural deformities. The recommended patient education is often designed for people who live in the privileged areas as depicted in Miller’s photography, areas where people play golf in their free time. This patient’s reality meant lugging a heavy suitcase wherever she went, which undermined her treatment. Also, her difficult circumstances drastically reduced the chances of her complying with or completing the recommended course of treatment.

It is disturbing that such contrasting worlds are separated merely by highways or only a fence as seen in Miller’s photographs 1, 2 and 3. This is my experience too. I travel on the N2 from Woodstock in my functioning car and 20 minutes later I turn off to enter the heart of Gugulethu. One highway is what separates my privileged medical aid lifestyle from others that queue for hours to be seen to. Nevertheless, I have been amazed at certain of the realities of the lives of those depicted by Miller in the less well-off communities.  One would think that people who are confronted by queues, chronic and terminal illnesses would be angry and withdrawn. On the contrary, I have found that, every morning when entering GCHC, I have been greeted by the morning prayers of people in the community singing and clapping together in the queues

. These are all strangers who stand together and celebrate those who get better, even if their personal circumstances are not as fortunate. I doubt that this sense of “ubuntu” is experienced in the waiting rooms in private hospitals on the privileged side as seen in Miller’s photographs.

The photographs have prompted me to face the challenge as a health care professional of straddling the two contrasting worlds to blur the stark dividing line depicted in the photographs. This would involve having empathy for the daily hardships my patients face and finding ways of providing an excellent and adaptive service in the public health sector not withstanding the resource scarcity.

By Georgia van Embden 2019

References:

Robinson, M. (2016, June 15). A drone captured these shocking photos of inequality in South Africa. Retrieved from Business Insider : https://www.businessinsider.com/drone-photos-show-inequality-in-south-africa-2016-6?IR=T

Miller, J. (2018, June ). Artists’ Statement . Retrieved from Unequal Scenes : https://www.unequalscenes.com/about-contact

Scott, K. (2019, May). South Africa is the world’s most unequal country. 25 years of freedom have failed to bridge the divide. Retrieved from: CNN World: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/07/africa/south-africa-elections-inequality-intl/index.html

Photographs link: 

https://www.businessinsider.com/drone-photos-show-inequality-in-south-africa-2016-6?IR=T