Photographer Musa N Nxumalo's new solo show, In Search Of ..., traces his journey from an anxious, confined township childhood to the liberty of the city. Nxumalo runs a pretty clean operation at the Bag Factory Studios in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, compared with the chaotic environments that seem de rigueur for artists.Across from Nxumalo's station is surrealist painter Blessing Ngobeni's hovel. Magazine clippings, water buckets, paint and brushes line every inch of the space in which Ngobeni paints his dreams. A few doors down, Congolese artist Thornton Kabeya occupies similarly organised confusion.Not Nxumalo. His house has the pristine precision of a dentist's rooms. It's a tad cold and bare, save for some artistic literature, magazines and a black-and-white portrait of his grandfather. An ample Apple Mac screen dominates."If you live in a shack and it is always clean, it can be a place that will be very dear to your heart, it can become a home," Nxumalo says of his space. "Growing up in Emdeni, Soweto, cleanliness was a must. My grandmother hated dust, so when we got home after school we had to clean the house before we could go out and play."story_article_left1Most of Nxumalo's solo show, In Search Of ... , which comprises images from his Alternative Kidz and In/Glorious series, is inspired by his upbringing and his journey towards the finding of self. For the most part, Nxumalo turns the camera on himself, friends, family and community. His images map a deeply personal trajectory, and nostalgia fills the images of his childhood home.A photograph of two ornamental ceramic puppies recalls a popular fixture in townships in the '90s. Such knick-knacks were hawked by door-to-door salesmen who convinced our mothers they were art. Most of the ornaments broke, but this pair still exist in the Nxumalo home. He has attached his own memories to the puppies, but their sad expressions suggest the gloom of poverty.These decorative dogs of doom stared at him every day during childhood. "We had a four-roomed house and some of us slept in the lounge, and my view from the couch was those puppies."I was tasked with cleaning them. The photos taken at my home are born of frustration and anger, because everything was falling apart. There were elements of family dysfunction. I never used to bring people to my house, because I did not want people to see the space I was living in."Most of my friends were middle class and I was very far from that. So in a sense this work was designed to address some of the insecurities that I dealt with when I was younger."full_story_image_hright1When he casts his lens beyond the family home, he encounters a youth culture very different to the dominant discourse - particularly in the Alternative Kidz series. Nxumalo has long been an enthusiast of alternative rock and metal music, partly through his friendships with members of the Soweto metal band Ree-Burth, from Pimville.The shots of rock gigs in Soweto depict young folk in trance-like states of enjoyment, in spaces that appear safe and communal: far removed from the crazy scenes we associate with the music. It's not wild. Nxumalo was immersed in this world, and this makes his images honest and devoid of political posturing about black youth. But once the work was exhibited it became clear that it meant more to audiences than just him and his buddies having a jol."I was naive about the broader dialogue that Alternative Kidz was creating. It spoke of black guys in the township who were no longer just associated with kwaito or hip-hop. They would leave Soweto to go to clubs in the north. It spoke of this shift, where people were curious about cultures beyond their surroundings."Finally, Nxumalo explores the seemingly banal activity of sleepover parties. Clubs in Newtown, trips to Durban and interracial relationships opened up a world far beyond Emdeni street bashes. As usual, his camera was on hand: capturing how he and his peers reacted to this new space, how they interpreted the culture while incorporating their own. He had to explain where he went to school and improve his English fluency, adding the requisite accent.Nxumalo's work speaks of the urge to travel, expand, go beyond the world set out for him by his circumstances. He finds nothing romantic in the mantra "You can take me out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of me"."I don't want to take my work to the township, I would rather they left the township to see the work. I don't believe you belong to the ghetto - I believe that people should come out more and explore what is on the outside."'In Search Of ...' runs at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg until 31 May 2015...