Morning Blues, from the series "Men Only"

Born in rural South Africa and trained at Johannesburg’s Market Photo Workshop—a combined school, gallery, and project space that has been pivotal to photographic education in South Africa—Sabelo Mlangeni explores personal dignity in environments that often erase it. This intimate image is set in an all-male hostel occupied by taxi drivers, security guards, and other ubiquitous yet largely invisible members of society, including those seeking work. After taking two years to gain residents’ trust, Mlangeni lived for weeks in the hostel. The lingering effects of apartheid—South Africa’s former system of legalized segregation—limit the racial makeup and economic prospects of residents and foster assumptions about their purported violence and illegal activities. Looking past these stereotypes led Mlangeni to photograph fragments of life that “capture the normality that exists in an abnormal, unnatural situation.”