Under the Sway. A photographic journey through Mozambique, by Justin Fox.

Under the Sway. A photographic journey through Mozambique, by Justin Fox. ISBN 9781415200131 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0013-1

Justin Fox, Author of 'Under the Sway. A photographic journey through Mozambique' says: Mozambique has me securely hooked. I’m drawn to architecture, landscapes – particularly seascapes – and the sociable bustle around markets and harbours. I also have a passion for African sailing craft. You can happily leave me with a camera for a whole day in any dhow harbour.

Justin Fox  

Introduction: Overlanding in Mozambique, particularly in the remoter parts, offers high adventure. As recently as the 1990s; it could be life-threatening: bandits, landmines, blown bridges and destroyed roads were common obstacles. This I first discovered on a three-week journey from south to north in 1999, which spawned the travelogue With Both Hands Waving and forms the core of this pictorial journey. That trip was a nerve-jangling one, but left me with a deep affection for the country, and a determination to get back as soon as possible. Within a year I'd returned ... and continue to do so at every opportunity. Mozambique has me securely hooked. This book is an impressionistic blending of several trips - some of them for Getaway magazine - into one wending thread. Presented as a single journey, it's a blurring of different narratives, just as our anarchic memories are prone to doing. As a photographic travelogue, Under the Sway does not attempt to cover the whole of Mozambique, or even to tick off essential sites. These are glimpsed as a traveller would see them, in passing - a road movie in stills, if you like. Taken on the hoof, the images do not pretend to be art photographs, nor is this a 'Beautiful Mozambique' book. The record here is of things that interest me: my own visual landscape. Driving down the escarpment off South Africa's bleak highveld in winter Pm always struck by the rich, saturated colours in Mozambique. The light has a luminescent glow and the intense hues of capulanas (sarongs), brightly-painted dhows, shops filled with tropical fruit and garish Chinese goods heighten the colour overload, which I endeavour to capture on film (I still haven't succumbed to digital). In terms of subject matter, Pm drawn to architecture, landscapes - particularly seascapes - and the sociable bustle around harbours. It's not only grand colonial forts, villas and deco buildings that fascinate me, but also the ugly modern edifices to which the sticky climate and political economy have been very unkind. So too the markets that flourish in every town, where the play of colour, light and texture on grain, spices, fish, woodcraft and fabrics make for striking abstracts. I also have a passion for African sailing craft, and one is spoilt along the Mozambican coast by the range of traditional vessels still in use. You can happily leave me with a camera for a whole day in any dhow harbour. For the past decade, Mozambique has been emerging from a mess rooted in centuries of conflict. It's not for nothing that one of the first things the Portuguese did when they arrived was to build forts, preferably on offshore islands. Before the recent revolutionary and civil wars, which lasted over two decades, Mozambique was a holiday playground for white southern Africans. With its endless beaches, exotic cuisine and Luso-African atmosphere, it provided a tropical getaway from the highlands of the African interior. The current renaissance is making Mozambique once more a favoured tourist destination. The economy is fast recovering and Maputo has dusted off its party frock, transforming itself again into that beautiful palm-fringed Indian Ocean city swaying to a sultry beat. For many South Africans, returning to Mozambique stirs evocative - even painful - recollections. For political activists, it was a safe haven during the apartheid years; others cherish memories - or family legends - of summer holidays before the revolution. [...]

This is an excerpt from the book: Under the Sway. A photographic journey through Mozambique, by Justin Fox.

Book title: Under the Sway
Subtitle: A photographic journey through Mozambique
Author: Justin Fox
Imprint: Umuzi
Publisher: Random House Struik
Cape Town, South Africa 2011
ISBN 9781415200131 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0013-1
Hardcover, dustjacket, 27x28 cm, 144 pages, throughout colour photos