Wednesday 23 September 2015

A short walk in Orange Grove...

Yesterday I visited an Italian delicatessen and grocery shop in Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, Johannesburg. My mission was to buy some of those little red Italian cold drinks that look and tate a bit like Campari, but without the alcohol. There are many brands that sell these cold drinks but the one I am familiar with is called 'Crodo Bitters'. 

Super Sconto sells important Italian food and drinks and to tell the truth they have as large a selection of Italian delicatessen & food as I have seen anywhere on my recent holiday in Italy...




After my shopping I took a short walk up and  down Louis Botha avenue to take some photographs. 






There seems to be some major roadworks in process because all the pavements are gone and half of the road is blocked for traffic. There are relatively few people walking around and everyone I spoke to told me that the area is quite safe. 

I am not familiar with this area, so I have little knowledge of what it was like before,  but now it has that typical look of many former all white areas in our country...lots of decay and neglect, which of course is the type of environment I like to photograph in. Usually I photograph impeccably designed homes and architecture for the wealthy and so I suppose that for my personal photography I am drawn to the opposite of that... 



As I was photographing this entrance hall the door suddenly burst open and this young girl stuck her head out with a big grin and a laugh. Its this joyous celebration of life and its moments that I always treasure here in South Africa. 







Of course as luck would have it Super Sconto had no stocks left of my little red Italian cold drinks! I had wanted to phone ahead and ask but I forgot, but I am glad that I made the 45km journey from home anyway because if I hadn't,  then I wouldn't have discovered this new place to photograph...and there are few placesin South Africa where you can have a decent cappuchinno in an environment like this!

I'l be baaack...

Regards,

Ivan

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