‘This beautifully written book arrives at a time when issues of race, belonging and what constitutes our true national identity seem to feature centrally in a range of public dialogues. Sometimes they appear in ways that threaten to further fragment our flailing democracy. Its arrival could not have been more timeous!’ – Bonita Bennett, Trustee and Research Associate of the District Six Museum, Cape Town.

Nadia Kamies has written a profound and moving meditation on what it meant to grow up ‘coloured’ in South Africa under apartheid.

The photographs from family albums that gave rise to this project not only represent the aspirations of the families and community about whom Kamies is writing, but are also repositories of memories weighted equally with joy and sorrow. Kamies mines these images for their secrets, showing them to be a record of the past and a promise of what the future might be.

Off-Centre and Out of Focus: Growing Up "Coloured" in South Africa is published by Fourthwall Books and ESI Press