A Series of Photographs of the Ponte City Building in Johannesburg, South Africa

My fiance and I recently had the opportunity run the 54 floors of the Ponte City, in Johannesburg. For those that know, they will know. But for those that do not know, this building has some real sad history to it. I am not even sure about it all, but at one stage the centre of the tower housed almost 4 stories of trash, and some people used it to commit suicide. But recently, they have tried to revamp the building, the four story dirt pile has been removed, and every now and then, they hold Dlala Nje challenge - the running of all 54 floors in less than 30 minutes.

I am not going to beat around the bush. This is not in a very good area, and driving there that early in the morning was a scary experience in itself. We mistook the one turn and I drove deeper into the city. If you know how the city looks like in South Africa, you know about the dangers - from potholes that will really break your car, to hijackings. But we arrived safely at the building, parking in one of the strangest parking lots. We parked across a burned out car... That is when we realised the building was not empty (because for some reason we did not realise that 2000 people still live there...).

It was a freezing morning. The wind felt like ice cutting through our bodies. We stood at the bottom of the building, and we could barely see the sky. The building looked like a horror movie, or horror game. We felt strange, as we decided to run up a building where other people still live. But we were ready to run the 54 floors.

And like that, we ran up all 54 floors. We were handed a medallion and we were greeted with loud music. We all celebrated our win with coffee and some traditional food. Some even drank some beer. But I needed to drive back home, so I opted for some black coffee. The views from 50 floors up were incredible. I have never actually seen the city from this high, as this was the first time in my life that I went this high up in any buildings. (Previously, the highest one I was in was about 16 floors.)

In the end, we really felt a strange sense of victory, but also a sadness. We left the building, seeing how so many people live their lives. This seemed like a world I have never seen. I live a 1200 km away from the central parts of Johannesburg, and this is the first time I have been to the centre of this city. It was an interesting experience, and I felt like a stranger in my own country. I am not sure I know what to make of these feelings.

For now, I hope that you had a good week, a good weekend, and that there is some light in the end of your tunnel. As this spark of hope is all we need.

Happy photographing, and keep well.

All of the musings and writings are my own. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm lens, or my iPhone.