In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw

In the Shadows of the Springs I Saw is a masterclass in multimedia and a testimony to the enduring spaces that bear the burden of history.

Thirty miles east of Johannesburg, the town of Springs, South Africa boasts the second largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world. From a prosperous gold mining era in the 1920s and ‘30s, through the forced removals of entire communities during Apartheid, and now in a time of revival—these buildings stood sentinel over it all.

In a series of photo essays, fictional monologues, and poems, Barbara Adair reimagines the architectural monograph to explore a city in liminal space, where legacies of decay and restoration, somber remembrance and celebration, violent exclusion and vibrant integration can be felt on every street corner.