On 22 February 1985, women and children formed a line to draw water from a well in the Crossroads settlement of Cape Town, South Africa. Photographer Allan Tannenbaum's record also notes that widespread anti-apartheid rioting had occurred in the area several days earlier.
The caption establishes the date, place, well, and the women and children waiting. It does not establish the total length of the queue, the duration of the wait or each family's circumstances. Even immediately after political violence, the daily task of carrying water continued, appearing largely as a burden organised among women and children.
A historical event may end in a headline, but ordinary life resumes the next morning. At the Crossroads well, political tension and household water demand occupied the same place, and one photograph preserved the “after” of an event as an ordered wait.