Justin McGee: June 2009

31 May 2009 Bus-Setters Go Home..or do they.

We where supposed to go home on sat the 30 of May but both Jr and I had extreme hangovers and Jr hadn't got a bag for his stock yet so we postponed to trip to sunday 11 am. As much fun as we have had and fell in love with the town we needed to head home. For some solitude and our own beds.

So we arrive at the Park Station at 1 pm to buy a tickets but I notice the station is has lot more activity than usual.We had never booked in advance for any of the last few trips and I had feeling this was going to be the end of our luck and I was right 2 pm bus sold out. With Dan having left already and feeling bad about asking him to come back we booked our 10 pm bus tickets and battled with the idea of waiting here for the next 8 hours. I wanted to book a room at the Formula 1 Inn but JR was having none of it . His second sever hangover in as many days has taken the wind out of his adventurous sails .

2 o'clock bus

So against my will I gave into the Hungover Ass 1 and we caught a taxi back to Killarney.

JR slept the whole time while I watched shit T.V and getting increasingly frustrated with waiting.

I hate waiting it drives me insane. 9 o'clock arrives the taxi is here and we say our good byes AGAIN!.On the way down I inquire about the tickets. JR seems to have lost them.

How I don't know but these things happen. We eventually convince the ticket lady with charm and ID books we are what we say we are.She scribbles on a piece of paper and gives us the holder that normally has the ticket stapled inside.At check-in time I reliese the dude is same from last time hopefully he will remember us (although he might really remember us for flirting with his lady and stealing there chocolate eggs) and doesnt give us shit.

He checks us out and laughs.He doesnt even worry about JR's over weight luggage.

Good Bye JHB till next time.

10 o'clock bus

29 May 2009 Shoot # 4 and Shoot #5

I would like to take this moment to thank the kids at Killarney Wilds 604 for letting me use there house for the shoot and letting me squat on your couch for the last two and half weeks and especially Dan for picking us up at 5 am from Park Station.

A fashion story I tested on Dan and Jr and a sample of the Drag queen story I covered with Kim Garner at Sulsa.

27 May 2009 The day my new best friend arrived- I love you Canon!

24 May 2009 "...come to Soweto for a drink and bmx fun"

The plan was for Jr and myself to cruise the zoo. His plan was to eat five ice-creams and puke on someone. Unfortunately for him I got another offer and he was hung-over. The other offer came from a friend who I had only really met once at Oppikoppie. Tyne was then working for Red Bull and she had got word of Red Bull event happening at the abandoned nuclear power station in Soweto. This place was massive. At first I couldn't make it to the roof section cause i didnt have credentials but after finding some fellow photographers from Durbs (Tyron and Jimmy) I hustled my way up with Tyrone.I am not much of sports photographer so much of what I shot was more of the building and novel crowd shots but i did get the only shot of the biggest mishap and nearly tragic event. One of the riders who I had noticed had been ripping it up took a wrong turn from the next level up and landed on the wrong ramp. When it happened I was like"fuck thats hectic!" but I thought these guys fall all the time but it wasn't till all the other competitors starting scrambling did I relies how not cool this was.He got up pretty quickly but had broken his ankle.

23 May 2009 Sl shoot in New Town.

Between shots I came across these cool looking Drama class that where attending a workshop across the way from me and lured them over for an impromptu street shoot.

22 May 2009 -Gun Fights and Miracles in JHB Town!

BANG! as I log on to Addictbook.com on my cell.I look left still clutching my glass bottle still one sip away from backwash.I hear again rapidly, "BANG! BANG! BANG!". out of the corner of my right eye a guy hustling pirate Nollywood dvds has dropped to the ground discarding the disk in evasive action.I glance at JR still in the shop buying stoke for MAMA."BANG!" I didnt even budge.My stoney ginger beer still waiting to give back me my gob.A mild flutter/stutter happens at the corner to my right and people stumble from around the corner where the shots have apparently been released from. I look up passed the vendours to my right selling the usual knock off PSL soccer jerseys and above these vedours is a Somali gentleman know more than 33 standing on the balcony of this pink art deco building pointing down beyond my corner with his other hand pressed up against his forehead.

BANG! and then nothing.The same guy who was flaunting those now scattered disks is retrieving his now sprayed disk pattern that seems to have lightened up the pavement that seems to have sprouted vedours so much that they seem like growths on the ceiling and on you right and left.When our eyes eventually meet after retrieving his plastic crystals of light I must have hada panicked but intrigued look on my face because as he spoke either to me or himself he uttered the words " those fucking taxis". i pull my arm to my mouth to retrieve the now one minute fermented stoney and gob and everything is back to normal.I look again up for the Somali like a a phantom witness to the jfk assassination back on that balcony with the best view of this action but there are now two

Somalis

having what seems a chat about totally arb actions like ,"did you pay the electricity & is the store on Sieek st stocked ?","i have sent Sadeek to pay the bill on Small St & Gladys has Sieek St covered",says the second Somalie

I had only been in Jhb city center for half an hour & i got a fireworks display of the adventurous criminal kind.

20 May 2009 Sl shoot #2 "Testing one , two , three . Yo Chief could you turn that light up"

Behind every good photographer there is an Ass 1. JR is mine . But he is more that. He is Stylist/Choreographer/fellow bus setter/navigator and possibly soon to be T.V presenter oh ja and he has some mad clothing stock for his store right check him out.

18 May 2009- Bus setter # 3

"Park station takes us home and welcomes us back with red eyes and uncomfortable backs!",

the red eye gang

16 May 2009 - Bus-Setter #2 Photography saved my sanity.

The 2 o'clock bus ride back to Durban to pick up my new cameras was hideous.

The driver seemed so wasted as he swerved all over the road creating images in my head of the bus turning over on my side with the 100 kg big mama sitting across the way from me landing on my head and killing me if I survived the initial accident. Let's not talk about the annoying kid three rows back singing , "choo-choo goes the train" over and over and over for 45 min. I just felt like shouting "its a fucking bus you half pint bitch!" and then she started crying about 2 hours before that and the mother wasn't having any part in controlling her ....... I was screaming blue murder in my head. Before that was the guy directly behind me an engineer from Sasol on his way home to a christening chatting to who his paster who later decide to sing over his Ipod in the most horrific tone " you are all in my head .I am stuck on you...." at first amusing but after twenty minutes it just got plane infuriating .... to calm down I started shooting from the window at the peaceful clouds. They aren't even really sharp but it drowned out the experience I was having to endure.

15 May 2009 - This Monkeys Gone to Heaven

Cruising New Josie I found this curious alien-like aircraft sitting in the emergency lane as I was about to hit the freeway .At first I just drove past amazed at what I was checking just parked in the yellow line in the middle of know where.A little nervous I drove on only to hit the freeway looking for the nearest exit to double back and go claim a few shots of this craft .So many ideas where passing through my head. What could this contraption could be for ? Some new form of gorilla advertising? , were there more in other locations in the city?, was it some form a band promotion? because the whole vessel seemed to be covered in c.d.'s twinkling in the cold winter sunshine, maybe an installation of sorts....fuck what is it?

After doubling back I pull up the off ramp hoping praying that the vessel hasn't flown back to outer-space. Yay its there. Veer off into the yellow line ready to attack this subject with my camera. It was shrine of disks, string, plastic pearls ,ribbons and intwined these curious figures that seem to be trapped by this monkeys web of beautiful rubbish. Aliens ....woooohooo!

After a couple seconds the real pilot of this ship jumped from the bush like a yeti . We chatted for a couple of minutes and found out that they were not aliens of the extra terrestrial kind but rather from Botswana and he had been on the streets for the last 5 years decorating his trolly as a hobby. It made me think of the Rickshaw rides in Durban. Imagine getting a ride in this contraption through Melville at 10 pm on a saturday night.