Ever since Apartheid

Behind every picture you'll find a story. But in the pictures of South African-born photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, the stories are revealed in the sitters' own words.

'I lived alone in this hostel. Alone with 400 other men', reads a caption for Mr Mkhize, an elderly Zulu who still lives in the sparsely furnished room that's been his home since he arrived as a boy, looking for work.

Only since the collapse of Apartheid has Mr Mkhize's wife been allowed to join him there and, except for the purposes of government ID, this is the first time his photograph has been taken.

Jennifer's home is a dusty roadside in the Northern Cape. Her head resting on a big rock, she is feigning sleep, or else complete indifference. She tells us she has just been 'dreaming of winning the lottery, same as everyone else.' A dream, like death, is a great leveller.

'Why should whites today have to pay for the sins of their forefathers?' complains Glynn, a white engineer from Cape Town. 'That's the kind of talk you get after three beers with my generation of white men.'

A decade into the new, democratic South Africa, Broomberg and Chanarin spent a year documenting its people. They gave their subjects time to talk, while they set up a large-format camera. But age and infirmity silenced others. Two elderly Jewish women are each strapped to vertical cots in a care home, physical decline their only testimony.

Until Aug 1, The Photographers' Gallery, 8 Great Newport Street, WC2, Mon to Sat 11am to 6pm, Sun 12pm to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7836 9704. Tube: Leicester Square

Mr Mkhize's Portrait And Other Stories From The New South Africa: Adam Broomberg And Oliver Chanarin