CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/11/2016

Santu Mofokeng: Stories No. 1: Train Church

"Early-morning, late-afternoon and evening commuters preach the gospel in trains en route to and from work," South African darkroom printer Santu Mofokeng writes in his quintessential new photobook, available through Sunday at our Steidl booth (C08) at the LAABF. "The train ride is no longer a means to an end, but an end in itself as people from different townships congregate in coaches—two or three per train—to sing to the accompaniment of improvised drums (banging the sides of the train) and bells. Foot stomping and gyrating—a packed train is turned into a church. This is a daily ritual.
This sudden religious ecstasy struck me as odd. These office cleaners, clerks, factory workers and general laborers enjoined in a cacophony of song and prayer, a catharsis of spirituality in a moving landscape."