Work Hard & Do Good Work

It's Tuesday morning, shortly after 8am, I've just finished my morning exercise routine, made myself a cup of coffee and I am getting ready to get behind my laptop when my phone rings.

Pack your bags and get your VISA ready, you are flying to China in a week; says the voice on the other end of the line. It's one of my clients - and I'd like to think; friends - Charl du Plessis. Remember him? I photographed him for his latest album? No?

Here's a refresher :)

Charl wanted me to fly with him to Haikou, China where he would be performing on four different Steinway & Sons pianos in one recital. (You can find out more about the pianos on Charl's blog). Without any hesitation I went to the Chinese consulate & got an express VISA - a fancy term for paying twice as much :P
The next Thursday we were on a plane headed to China. Now I am not being a braggart, you should know this about me. I am not showing off.

What I am trying to convey is that, if you work hard and do good work, you'll get that one client (or several) that will become a friend and a lifelong collaborator and that's what I am trying to build. Sure, I want to work with new people, however, keeping communications open with previous clients will lead to many other doors being opened and great, lasting friendships.

Here are a few images from the performance.

And some, where I wandered the back alleys and side streets.

Thanks for reading

#MuslimNotExtremist

I met Simmi on what would be the final few portraits for my "Dudes with Beards" project. I was photographing his friend (Deen) for the project and he asked if he could bring Simmi along and I am glad he did.

Simmi ended up contacting me a month or so later to talk about shooting some portraits for his upcoming one man show; "Make me Maaf" (or Jesuis Simmi, depending on the city). 

Google defines it as follows:

maaf

• Forgive

1. (v. t.) To give wholly; to make over without reservation; to resign.
2. (v. t.) To give up resentment or claim to requital on account of (an offense or wrong); to remit the penalty of; to pardon; -- said in reference to the act forgiven.

I'm pretty sure that Simmi mentioned that it means "apologise", so I am not too certain about the meaning, so take the above definition with a grain of salt.

Moving on.. After some brainstorming and some pretty outlandish concepts on my behalf (from having him in a butchery amongst a bunch of pig carcassess, to looking longingly at a bacon burger - Simmi is Muslim - and even making a bomb vest from firecrackers) we set a date and shot some portraits.

Simmi all along this process was always more than open to my ideas, no matter how crazy they sounded. I love when a client trusts my judgement. It makes me confident, which translates to better images at the end of the day, because they trust me to know what I am doing.

I had fun creating these images with Simmi and I am happy to say we ended up making a really crappy bomb vest from firecrackers. He isn't afraid to challenge those kinds of stereotypes and I respect that immensely.

Just another day at the office! Our very well made Bomb Vest :) 

Keep your eyes peeled for his one man show in the coming months and I hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading

Pietà

So, here it is! The BIG reveal. The image that was a year in the making. I am super proud of this photo and very thankful to everyone that helped make it.

Right before I went to the USA last year to intern with Zack I met up with a friend of mine who was starting a small independent design company called "Brother Lawrence". We (myself, him, his partner in the company and my stylist friend Pierre) sat down and started tossing ideas around and so we eventually came up with the idea to recreate Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture as a photograph.

The thing that especially got us hooked on the idea is that he is a white Afrikaans dude and she is a black Basotho girl and with race always looming over us we set out to make the image. And what do you want to do when you make art? You want people to talk and ask questions and be confused/angry/curious/happy. Why did this person create this? What are they saying? Well, we weren't trying to "say" anything. We just wanted to make a cool image for them and perhaps stoke the fire a bit? ;)

A week before I left we were scrambling to arrange everything for the shoot, but then I decided it was too rushed. None of us were ready, hell; I wasn't ready. The image needed some finesse and a little more knowledge and expertise, so I promised to make the image when I got back and had learned from the master. (Read: yes, you Zack :D).

So, off I went to America, always keeping that image in the back of my mind, asking Zack's advice. Figuring out how I was going to light it. How would I position my subjects and on and on it went. I finally came back and felt I was ready to shoot it, but then tragedy. The company had decided to disband and both move on to other things. I still wanted to make that image, so we regrouped and planned and looked for a model to accompany Gerhard. A few months passed and after tons of admin, emails, wardrobe sourcing we got together on a Saturday and made something awesome (at least I think it's awesome).

I made this photo with friends and with the help of friends and a stranger or two and I am very proud of what I (read: we) made.

Thank you to Pierre du Plessis for the styling and wardrobe sourcing - I helped here as well :P. Thank you Gerhard van Wyk and Karabo Poppy for meeting with me and Pierre and helping us with the concept. Thank you Ett Venter for assisting me (and providing the BTS images) on the shoot and helping me setup 3 hours beforehand and testing the light so that the models didn't have to sit around and wait. Thank you Laura Jane for putting me in touch with the make-up artist Courtney Chadwick. Courtney, did make-up for a shoot in the morning, had a wedding after that and then rushed through to come and help me out. What a legend. Thank you to Bianca Koyabe the beautiful model. You are a pro and your expertise got us all home quicker than I ever could have imagined. Gerhard, your "expertise" in being the dead soldier was also great ;)

And lastly I want to thank Zack Arias for helping me wrap my head around lighting this photo. It's probably the most involved lighting setup I have ever used on a shoot and I could not have done it without your advice and guidance.

Thanks for reading

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Editors Note: I was made aware last night, that I might just get that fire started. Like I said; race is still a big issue, especially in South Africa and this might be a bit of a grey area, but I will stand by this image. I am proud of this image.

The Ocean Doesn't Want Me - The Reins

A year in the making - no thanks to me - is the album art for my friends The Ocean Doesn't Want Me. I did the artwork/photos for their previous album As The Dust Settles as well and that also took me damn near a year to complete.

My concepts were solid, but as with most things, the longer I sit on it the more I start to second guess the ideas and execution. But hey, these things take time right and they've also been busy finishing up mixing of the tracks etc. so no harm no foul. I just like to be way more punctual you know?

So the concept of The Reins in brief is; a letter from the older generation to the younger generation saying; take the reins, we f**ked up. You deal with this.

There are four songs and thus four photographs representing each song.

Droughts & Floods - The older generation who are handing down the reins with difficulty knowing that they are giving something broken to the younger generation. The topographical map represents rivers and land.

Let Blood - The daughter. Father finds difficulty communicating with her in this "male centric/man made" world. That is also why I chose to make it a rather awkward/disturbing image. 

We Remember - The Son. Ultimately our fathers mistakes lie heavy on our shoulders (more so than it should perhaps). So we are left to toil in the dust and dirt to try and repair what doesn't work. This shot was all in camera whereas the other two I did the overlays in post.

Young Ones - The ignorance of youth, taking things on too eagerly perhaps and in their haste repeating the same patterns and same mistakes. Unlike the other images there is no overlaid image here. I wanted to capture it as simplistic as possible to show the "virginity" of youth and being young and perhaps foolish. That is also why I chose the fetal position.

And then for the cover image up top. I just liked that it almost looks like some sort of chemical reaction taking place. I had no concept for it and this was just something that I spotted by chance whilst house cleaning and then photographed.

Those are the images and the concepts and very short stories behind them and how I interpreted the lyrics to the songs and the explanations by the band as to what they mean for them.

Order their damn album when it drops. This is hard work.

Thanks for reading.