Neo-natal Clinic, Esselen Street, April 2014

Dave Southwood depicts pregnant women queuing outside the Esselen Street Clinic in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in the hours before dawn. The scene is set in a densely populated inner-city area marked by social precarity, yet also by sustained access to public healthcare.

The photograph highlights the critical role of clinics in South Africa’s HIV/AIDS response, where decentralised care has enabled the large-scale rollout of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Through civil society advocacy, most notably the Treatment Action Campaign, and subsequent constitutional litigation, access to life-saving medication has been significantly expanded through the public health system.

Within this context, the clinic becomes a site where the right to health and dignity is materially enacted, particularly for pregnant women requiring prevention of mother-to-child transmission. Despite long queues, limited resources, and difficult urban conditions, care remains accessible.

Visually, the image contrasts the quiet, pre-dawn city with the illuminated clinic interior, while silhouetted figures waiting outside emphasise both urgency and endurance. The scene captures a broader public health transformation: rising life expectancy, reduced transmission rates, and the democratisation of treatment through primary healthcare systems.