Famous photo of Drezi and Kazi (3 photos)

This artistic photograph, entitled "Drezi and Casi", was taken in 1993 and is one of the most famous works of Roger Ballen, an American-born South African photographer.

Ballen has not disclosed the identity of the twins. "I get contacted by so many people who want to know about them. Not a week goes by without someone calling me with an offer to print their faces on a bottle of some tomato sauce or something... I'm really more I don't want to talk about them. I have taken thousands of photographs throughout my life, but they will only remember me for this photograph."

Last October (published January 7, 2012), 53-year-old twins Drezi and Casi moved into a nursing home for the mentally retarded in a small town in the North West. Their brother and his wife, who had previously cared for them in Grootfontein, Namibia, grew old and realized that they could not care for the twins because they needed 24-hour care. Both twins are mute and, as their hospital records say, “have the mental capacity of a five-year-old.” Both do not control salivation and constantly wipe their chins with handkerchiefs, which they constantly carry with them.

They very quickly won the sympathy of the medical staff. Both try to hug the nurses, they laugh all day and grunt with delight when people try to communicate with them. Drezi spends most of the day knitting and Casi mostly tidies up the garden paths, as the care home manager says: "On the days they just want to sit, they just sit."

Nothing unusual for patients in a home of this nature - with one exception. On the closet door in their room is a black and white photograph of the twins when they were about 20 years younger. This is not a very good photo. The composition suggests that it was taken by a professional photographer, but in the picture the twins, who are meek and neat in real life, look like bad and suspicious types. Their clothes are dirty and their hair is disheveled. They are drooling. This photo is the reason why Casie and Drezi are probably two of the most famous residents of their hometown.

The staff at the nursing home, their new home, believe that the twins understand the world around them more than one might think. Sometimes on Sundays, they listen to the radio, church services, and even sing along. They are very religious. When their daughter-in-law calls from Namibia, they feel sad, they can cry together, and even when they are sad, they come up to a photograph of their mother and use hand gestures near their faces to show that she has gone on vacation.