NIRIN at Home: Capturing Movement

Found objects around your home
A camera or smartphone to take photographs

1. Think about how objects can be used as tools to create and capture movement.
2. Collect objects from around your house that move or can be animated. For example, a ticking analogue clock, a closing door, a falling blanket, or leaves that move in the wind. Your body is also a site for creating movement in interesting ways.
3. Experiment with different objects and materials and examine how they move and how the movements can be captured.
4. Think about the speed of the movement and how your eyes see it versus how the camera sees and captures the movement.
5. Consider composition and context of the activity. How can you best capture the movement in different objects in a still photograph?

Musa N. Nxumalo
Born 1986 in Soweto, South Africa
Lives and works in Johannesburg.

Nxumalo received his introduction to photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, along with Sabelo Mlangeni and the late Thabiso Sekgala who together are often associated with the new generation of contemporary South African photographers.

Rather than defining spaces, such as clubs and protests, as different worlds, he chooses to capture the intimate in public movements of young people across collective spaces, often capturing a common spirit and energy.

A raised fist and a strident walk down a catwalk, darkly lit club settings and collective movement to music or at a protest, Nxumalo often navigates spaces of both individual creative expression within dynamic collective gatherings, places of joy, resistance, and sharing space, his work becomes an archive of South African youth culture as it moves.

Explore Musa N. Nxumalo's artworks in NIRIN.

We’d love to see how you use these resources at home. Post your stories and photos with the hashtag #NIRINatHome.