Goddammit, there! This image has probably been posted on every forum on the entire internet, but nobody seemed to know its origin. It’s been posted as evidence of inbreeding in many US states (including, but not limited to West Virginia, Alabama and Georgia), it’s been posted as evidence of inbreeding in a polygamous FLDS community in southern Utah/northern Arizona, and it’s been posted just for the hell of it. I’d tried to find out whence it originally came, but no one seemed to know. Now, I do, and although it is evidence of inbreeding, it’s not in the US at all; it comes from a book called Platteland: Images From Rural South Africa by a photographer named Roger Ballen. He’s an American, but has lived in South Africa for many years, and I believe the photos in the book come from the Transvaal area. The word “platteland” literally means “flatlands”, but its actual meaning is something like “rural areas”. Apparently, these are the descendants of Dutch, German and French settlers who have fallen from status as the ruling class (because they are white) to lives of poverty, alcoholism and inbreeding. I can see why West Virginia gets the blame so often for this photo, but it was not taken there. These men are twins, called Dresie and Casie.
I was going to post only a thumbnail because anyone who’s been on the internet for more than fifteen minutes has probably already seen the photo, but when I went to Roger Ballen’s site, he’s using Flash (long-suffering sigh), and attempting to keep people from saving photos or even taking screencaps, so I “liberated” the largest version he has on the site. Meh…like I can’t get past Flash if I want something. 😉
Mr. Ballen, I do like your work and I’d buy that book, but it’s apparently out of print, and the prices on Amazon start at $775. You’re good, but not that good, so I’ll just liberate a digital copy and be glad I finally know who those men are. It was driving me batshit to not know the back-story, or even in which country the photo had been taken. West Virginia, you’re off the hook for these two, but you’re still…West Virginia. 🙂
EDIT: Yep, western Transvaal, 1993.
