I love street art, so I booked a street art tour with Jo Buitendach of P.A.S.T Experiences. Click here to link to her website. http://pastexperiences.co.za/

Whilst not being an artist herself, she works closely with the local community of street and graffiti artists.  She was a great guide, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the art and the local and visiting street artists.

A selection of my images from the tour are shown on the street art section of my website.

We walked from Doornfontein through to Maboneng, a trendy up and coming area of Johannesburg, now full of arty cafes, restaurants and bars.   She explained the history of the area and the stories behind many of the works of art. I really liked Nelson Makamo’s artworks, he had some great paintings of children on a black brick wall all the way along Van Beek Street. One of my favourites is shown here – 4 children clutching their mobile phones.

The area is located on the Eastern edge of the former central business district (CBD). It is now quite trendy, but it de-generated in the late 80s and became a no go area. The people who used to work, shop and socialise there, moved elsewhere. The banks and business buildings were squatted and became slums, these were rented out exploiting the city’s poorest homeless residents.