South Africa's many thousands of squatters live in fear of a security firm called the "Red Ants" known for their ruthless approach to evictions. The eviction troops in red overalls swarm like insects into occupied buildings and ruthlessly expel residents. They are hated, feared and despised by the majority of the underclass hanging onto a precarious existence in the ghetto's and shanty towns of South Africa.

 

These portraits look closer at the individual 'Ant' and in so doing we see the humanity that lies within each of them. Removed from the collective mass of the 'red army' we look into their eyes and see they each possess the basic human traits of compassion, each imbued with a sense of humour, candor, and of course contradictory emotions that seize them as they about their dirty jobs. Many of them come from the townships they are hired to clear and choose not the work because of allegiance to the cause, but rather as simply a means to employment.