Cape Town, South Africa (CNN) - When you think of Cape Town, what do you imagine? You might imagine Table Mountain, penguins on the sand or the beautiful beaches that surround this city.
But beyond the perfect version of the city, a different and more complex reality exists - in the context of the most unequal country in the world.
Here we meet two of the photographers working to reveal a deeper, more gravelly and less publicized side of the city through their images.
Ismaiel Isaacs, Cape Flats portrait photographer
Ismaiel Isaacs, 31, grew up in Manenberg, in the Cape Flats - a flat, sandy urban sprawl on the outskirts of downtown Cape Town. From the early 1950s, under the apartheid South African government, people of color were forcibly relocated there, earning it a reputation as an "apartheid dumping ground".
Today it is home to more than a million people, most of whom are of mixed origin.
Even after 26 years of democracy, it remains a notorious part of Cape Town, socio-economically marginalized from the city center and the surrounding suburbs.
As Isaacs told CNN, living here is a struggle; on a daily basis, people face gang violence, poverty and the risk of death from the ongoing drug wars.
But it's also a place of great character, community and culture - and that's where Isaacs draws his inspiration.
"I am trying to convey a message of the beauty that is in the struggle," says Issacs. "[It's] not only the struggles we go through that make us stronger people, but people who live here - they are beautiful. "
His photographs mainly focus on portraits of people from these communities. He describes his aesthetic as raw, unfiltered and emotional.
"My story of Cape Town in my photography is not only the history of mountains and beaches, but there is also an unpolished side of Cape Town that has been forgotten," he says. "And I think we have to recognize it, because there's a lot going on here. And in fact, in the Cape Flats, we need support."
Isaacs also says that he elevates people by taking their photos.
"I'm trying to take the negatives and put them in a positive position, because as soon as I take my camera and ask someone," Look, here, can I take a picture of you? "What are they going to do? They are going to smile," he said.
"Right now, I'm making them smile and it's pretty satisfying for me."
Barry Christianson, the documentary photographer
Barry Christianson, 38, grew up straddling two different worlds: during the week he lived with his mother in the Cape Flats, while his weekends were spent with his father in the bourgeois suburb of Cape Town.
"Cape Town is a fundamentally fractured city, as divided as it is beautiful," says Christianson. "There are several cities side by side - some for the wealthy and others for the poor."
As far back as he can remember, social and geographic disparities have had an impact on how he sees the city he calls home. After spending 16 years as a computer programmer, he felt compelled to turn his photography hobby into a full-time job.
"From colonialism to apartheid and democracy, people of color have been dispossessed of their land, their livelihoods and their freedom of movement," said Christianson.
"The fact of having to navigate between the two realities and everything that accompanied them made me aware of the spaces I lived in," he explains. "Much of my photography deals with the problems around space and how space is created, who is in space, who creates it and what happens to space when different people occupy it. . "
He brought CNN for a tour of the places he captured that illustrate these themes - like Saunders' Rocks, an old beach reserved for whites. Today Christianson believes it to be one of the most racially integrated beaches in the city.
He took one of his favorite photos there - a Muslim woman wearing a burkini, something he says you might not see in other parts of the city.
Much of his work also focuses on people who have faced more recent evictions, particularly in gentrification areas in the city center.
"As promoters buy and sell valuable properties in the city center, black and mixed-race South Africans who have managed to stay in the city center throughout apartheid are evicted and forced to stay in shelters. Poor housing on the outskirts of town, "said Christianson.
"[Cape Town is a] city that continues to move people, a very specific group of people who are never really allowed to stay in one place all the time, "he added.
This legacy of forced returns remains a deeply sensitive and difficult issue in South Africa today, which has had the most profound effects on non-white communities.
He often associates essays with his images and is one of a handful of documentary filmmakers determined to highlight these stories and the people behind them.
"Even if I photograph space," he says, "I try to bring out personal stories and personal stories, and how people relate to Cape Town."
The story has been updated to correct the age and spelling of Ismaiel Isaacs.
