Rural America / "Beaufort West" by Mikhael Subotzky

Reading over a foreward by Johnny Steinburg in Mikhael Subotzky's book "Beauort West" I recognize similarities we share here in the American South.  

"Rural South Africa has emptied over the last couple of generations. The number of commercial farmers has declined by almost a third. More and more of those who remain have mechanised their work and employ fewer and fewer people.
As for the rural poor, everyone goes to the city. Whether with their family’s consent or on the sly, whether alone or with others, scores of young people leave sometime in their teens. It is unusual these days for a person to reach adulthood with visions of spending the rest of their life in the countryside."  

The remainder of the foreward and images of Mikheal's are here

Summertime on the Harpeth

This took me back some years to see this group hanging by the river.  It was a mixed bag of emotions for me though.  Wasting afternoons with friends and talking about easy subjects like what animal you see yourself being was heart warming and cute.  But the dead "something" smell wafting along the water's edge and the fear someone might get hurt because of the invincibility youth seems to believe they possess was not so missed by me. I wish I could have let go but too much water under that bridge.