Bendheim about his series:

'Powertown is a cluster of shacks and dwellings that surrounds an old deserted power station, hence the name. The irony of Powertown is that, like the deserted power station, it has no power, or electricity.
That means that the poor families that live there rely on paraffin, candles and fires for their light and to cook. Quite often, I'm told, a house will burn down in the night because someone forgot to blow out a candle, or in a drunken state, mistakenly set fire to their house and possessions.

The old power station is used by the kids to play in, and despite being dangerous with big holes in the upper level floors, it's still a giant play zone. People are friendly and generally welcoming. Everyone has a story to tell, and they want it to be told.

People are really poor. Across the road there are two stores, a butchery and a bottle store. At the bottle store, people from Powertown spend their money on alcohol and get drunk; at the butchery, a collection is made for a weekly Soup Kitchen to feed the kids whose parents either cannot get work, or fritter away their cash at the bottle store. Life is filled with curiosities, contradictions and ironies, is it not?

By night, when the drink takes over, there are occasionally brawls, rapes and arguments and a flash fire every now and again in a house punctuates the darkness of night. In the morning, all that's left of the house are the metal springs of a burnt out bed, and a pile of smoldering ashes.

By day, Powertown is pretty normal. The kids generally go to a free government school; the mothers wash and clean and cook; the fathers sleep off the night before, or talk idly in small groups.
Powertown was an important experience for me. In so many ways its a microcosm of South African life today. Poverty, violence, joy, color, life, and the real hope of the new South Africa...children, always filled with big smiles, always happy, no matter the odds. Indeed, they are our best hope for a positive future."
 
Peter Bendheim is a documentary urban and landscape photographer, living and working in Durban, South Africa. To visit his website click here