8 photos of urban culture you might not expect to come out of Zimbabwe

This is the second exhibition I’ve held in the last year. Another event to further characterise me as a lost and found artist, strewn across different disciplines and perfectly happy there. Spoken word will always have its visceral anchor immovably lodged within me. Photography and film have swayed in and out of my life in the last few years, and the written word has been taking me on unmapped journeys that can only be plotted on the page.

It’s all one big story and it’s fascinating to explore the different ways of telling it.

The exhibition, entitled More or Less, was part of the recently held Shoko Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe. This was the third iteration of the event, a week-long celebration of urban culture in the capital city with artists from around the world flying in for performances. Reclaiming a disused outdoor water park as the home for the festival was a surreal experience. Crowds danced and moved through a venue that we used to run around in as bony, half-naked children wearing speedos (the elastic of which seemed to rarely function).

Along with two other photographers, Lesanne Dunlop and Bex Davies, I tried to capture the abundance that artists here are able to conjure when often armed with so few tools, to celebrate the vibrancy of the live music and art scene, and to celebrate artists who are dedicated to shedding their skin on the walls of our city.