Mick Hartley

Photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke, from her book Cry Sadness into the Coming Rain, captures the harsh reality of life in Namibia, where she was born. It's a country struggling with rapid development, the migration of people from rural to urban areas, and the desecration of the Namib Desert; a country where 85% of the land is under mining concession by international mining companies. And, to cap it all, a four-year drought….

C35: an isolated gravel road from Henties Bay to Uis. Roadkill? Hunting trophy? Roadside marker? Dorob National Park, 7 July 2014 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

A morning at the "amphitheatre" in the sand dunes. Dorob National Park, 26 April, 2016 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

A doll is hung above the ‘recycling’ area at the municipal refuse dump in Swakopmund – a warning to ‘white meme’ not to meddle with or intervene in local politics. Swakopmund, 1 June 2014 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

Gottlieb plays traditional Damara music at the funeral of Ouma Juliana ǂÛ-khui ǁAreses on the family farm beneath the Dâures. Uis District, Erongo Region, 6 December 2014 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

While Marta Rooinasie lives out her day in the nearby Klein Spitzkoppe Mountain digging for tourmalines, her Africanis dog Skrikkie (Afrikaans for ‘little fright’) guards her home, poultry and pigeons. Erongo Region, 9 January 2015 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

Roadside grave of two game poachers… pissed on by my dog. Dorob National Park, 26 February 2016 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke

Tattered by wind and burnt by the sun, an effigy made by Tolikie Dausab is meant to attract buyers/tourists to his pile of rose quartz stones on the side of the road. A road grader returns to camp for the night. Uis District, Erongo Region, 8 August 2015 © Margaret Courtney-Clarke