Developed alongside inner-city regeneration initiatives in Johannesburg, including the Joubert Park Public Art Project (2000–2002) and Tour Guides of the Inner City (Urban Futures 2000), this series reflects Jo Ractliffe’s sustained engagement with the shifting landscape of Johannesburg. Working with a Holga camera, she built an extensive archive of images that informed projects such as the collaborative film One Year Later (2001).

Ractliffe describes Johannesburg as a city “of slippages”, a place that resists fixed meaning, where the familiar dissolves into the uncertain, and past and present continually overlap. These photographs capture that unstable visual and psychological terrain, revealing the city as a fleeting, half-seen phenomenon encountered in motion.

Works in the CCAC collection include: Jeppe St cnr West Ferreiras-Dorp; Market St cnr Kort St Marshaltown; Marshall St Johannesburg Central; Goch St cnr Bree St; Carr St; Goch St Newtown; Simmonds St cnr Market St; Rissik St; Pritchard St Johannesburg Central; Wolmarans St Joubert Park; King George St Joubert Park; Twist St Joubert Park.

References

Diaz Morales, S. & Ractliffe, J. (2001) One Year Later [film]. Johannesburg.

Joubert Park Public Art Project (2000–2002) Project materials and documentation. Johannesburg.

Ractliffe, J. (2004) Johannesburg Inner City Works [exhibition statement].

Stevenson (2011) Jo Ractliffe: Johannesburg Inner City Works 2000–2004 [online exhibition]. Available at: https://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/ractliffe/index_johannesburg.html (Accessed: 05 November 2025).

Urban Futures (2000) Tour Guides of the Inner City [exhibition]. Curated by S. Hobbs. Johannesburg.