My province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was recently the scene of mass riots and looting, as thousands of political extremists robbed and/or burned hundreds of shopping centres, grocery stores and businesses within the course of a few days.
The anarchy began two weeks ago, and seems to have calmed, mostly thanks to the law-abiding citizens who rallied together to defend their neighbourhoods and remaining businesses. My partner Rowan and I even got involved with our local neighbourhood watch team, standing guard on our street late into the night, armed with makeshift weapons! It was quite surreal.
Photo courtesy of Lloyd Mackenzie, Highway Mail (that's me third from the left!)
Rowan had written a song called 'No World For A Virtuous Heart' in 2019, but the lyrics suddenly felt truer to life than ever, so we spontaneously decided to film a lyric video for the track.
Rowan's cousin Stuart Dods had recently filmed a mini documentary on some of the destruction caused by the riots, and we asked if he could recommend a location to film at, and if he'd like to get involved with our video. Stuart is a talented and well-established photographer, and we were excited when he said he was very keen to work with us.
Stuart invited his friend Stephen Railton to join us - Stephen is also a talented professional photographer, and it was great to have his extra input.
We filmed in the Riverhorse Valley area, which was one of the worst-hit places during the riots. The building we worked in was really badly burned.
Between filming scenes of Rowan, I took photos of the devastation. It was really strange walking through the ruins, smelling the ash, and knowing that this was someone's workspace just a few days before. It was heartbreaking to think how many other areas like this lay scattered around the country.
Stuart brought along his DJI Mavic drone, which was a lot of fun to see in action - it allowed him to take some crazy and creative angles that wouldn't have been possible with hand-held cameras (I really want a drone!).
It's funny how Stuart, Stephen and I are all photographers who have recently started getting more involved with videography - I guess it's a sign of the times! The cool thing is that we all got along and worked smoothly together, without getting in each other's way. There was a nice synergy.
While we were wrapping up, Rowan took a few shots of me being a photographer!
Once we got home, at about 7 pm, Rowan immediately began working on the edit, and stayed up until 7 am the next morning so we could release the music video that day. I think it turned out really well - let us know what you think. You can watch the lyric video HERE.
Watch the lyric video for No World For A Virtuous Heart HERE.