For Subterranea, Ayabukwa Magocoba went underground. The project, which she conceived, directed, styled and modelled, was shot in the limestone chambers of the Sterkfontein Caves outside Johannesburg, the UNESCO-listed site where the human record is held as both archive and origin. It is fitting ground. Magocoba is less interested in placing a body in a landscape than in dissolving the line between the two.

She builds the series in four movements: Grounded, Quartz, Unearthed and Obsidian. Light moves across raw stone and skin without preference for either. The wardrobe is tactile and earth toned, and the figure reads as something the cave has yielded rather than something staged inside it.

Photographed by Paul Shiakallis.

Credits

Direction, styling, model Ayabukwa Magocoba

Photography Paul Shiakallis

Lighting Thandeka Dlamini

Styling asst. Mosala Galekutle

Make-up Lethabo Folotsi

Designers

Grounded Zylize Studio, Rubi

Quartz NAO Serati, Gucci

Unearthed Kgabo767

Obsidian Courtnay Henderson, NAO Serati, Guess