I always love popping in to the lovely and talented young photographer Amy Scheepers’ blog wolf and wood to see what she’s been up to. I adore her whimsical and ethereal photography and I can never tire of featuring her work.

Model: Tessa Rose Vardy // MUA: Alana Pohlmann // Photographer: Amy Scheepers

http://wolfandwood.blogspot.com/

Giants among Men by talented Cape Town photographer Dillon Marsh is an ongoing project that features giant man-made objects around South Africa.

Dillon graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art in 2003. He’s had two solo exhibitions and several group exhibitions and is definitely someone to watch.

http://www.behance.net/DillonMarsh

http://www.dillonmarsh.com/

Handsome Things chatted to photographer Debora Indi about music, photography and why she’s starting to think tea is overrated.

What is you background and how did you get into photography? 

I was born in Lobito, Angola, left as a baby and I was raised in São Paulo where I dabbled in ballet until early adolescence. I moved to Cape Town at 14 where I grew up, loved and lived, up until very recently.  There I aspired to be an artist and fashion illustrator. I experienced modeling, finished a degree in Fashion Design at DAF and finally realized my undeniable love for photography.

I always had photography influences in my family, my grandmother used to work in a photography shop and my father is a true lover of photography, he used to develop his own material when he was young and I love looking through his albums from back in the day, they are all so full of magic and a most of my inspiration comes from him.

I’m currently living in Lisbon for the past 2 years, finishing a photography degree at Ar.Co. – Art and Visual Communication School.

I treasure life and I’m such a dreamer. Can’t stop laughing at myself. I love tea but I’m starting to think it’s overrated so I’ve been indulging in espressos.

Digital or film?

Both. I love film, I love spending ours in the lab developing the film and the whole process of printing and manipulating the negative, dipping the paper in the chemicals and watching the latent image come to life in my own hands. It’s a slower process, more expensive also and methodical, nevertheless, it’s very creative and stimulating.

Digital nowadays is essential! It’s fun, it gives us more freedom to create and invent at a faster pace. And I treasure digital for that! It’s the method I use for work while film is more on a personal level.

What inspires you?

I’ve been traveling since I was a baby and haven’t been able to stop, wander-lusting spirit. Traveling gives me drive, inspiration and I get anxious when I settle in one place for too long.

A free spirit at heart I’m also inspired by nature, mysticism, the earthly and ethereal.

My influences come from culturally substantial artists and writers of the 20th century. The works of Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz where art and fashion go hand in hand. And a lot of music like Joy Division, Interpol, Incubus, Björk, Jefferson Airplane, Arcade Fire and Bob Dylan amongst others.

I’m obsessed about everything beautiful and I try to find beauty in the mundane.

http://deboraindi.blogspot.com/

http://www.behance.net/deboraindi

Thanks Debora!

Wow. These gorgeous stills are from the Suzaan Heyns AV/Short Film that was shown as an intro to her Spring/Summer 2012 collection. The video was directed by WILLEM GROBLER and the Director of Photography was DAVID PIENAAR. I’m gobsmacked.

Credits:

Producer RENIER RIDGEWAY (Silver Lining Pictures)

 Edited by ROBERT ODENDAAL.

The Colourist was RICHARD STARKEY @ 744

Digital Models – Abby and Claire Meekel

You can watch the film here.

I found these stills here.

http://www.suzaanheyns.com/

Vanessa Lewis is a Jo’burg based food photographer who decided to venture into the world of kids’ photography when she couldn’t find any photographers she liked to photograph her two year old daughter Nina. She decided to set up a studio in Fourways with magical sets and the most adorable props to capture some truly unique moments.

“Nina Say Cheese portraits aim to capture less posed shots and more spontaneous moments that really bring to life your child’s delightful character. Portraits are taken against beautiful bespoke sets. Children are professionally styled and wear specially sourced items that match the themed world in which they will be captured.  Children are then encouraged to completely lose themselves in make-believe and shots are taken almost without their knowing. A fun and exciting experience for both mom and bunny.”

http://www.ninasaycheese.com/

The talented young Amy Scheepers, who I regularly feature, has teamed up with young fashion designer Natalie Creed to produce this beautiful shoot. You can read my previous chat with Amy here.

I asked Natalie a few questions

Where did you study?

Studied Fashion Design (BTech Degree) at NMMU

Future plans?

Future plans… I’m taking things one step at a time, but there is already so much going on. I want to grow the business gradually and eventually reach a point where I can travel the world to visit all my stockists!

Designers who inspire you?

I try not to be inspired by designers as such, I prefer to look to non-fashion sources for inspiration. But if I had to choose my favourite three it would be Anna Molinari, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano. They’re all very different, but I love the femininity that all of them bring to the table.

Thanks Natalie and Amy!

For some more swoon-worthy photography check out http://amyscheepers.blogspot.com/ and http://amyscheepers.com/

If you’d like to order any of the clothes (like this cute outfit below) you can email Natalie: info@nataliecreed.com

models: Kristi Marie Pretorius & Chloe Munton

clothing: Natalie Creed

photographer: Amy Scheepers

I’m sure many of you have heard of the beautiful Bicycle Portraits books that will soon be published by Stan Engelbrecht & Nic Grobler.  They have taken the best 165 portraits and stories of the over 500 portraits of cyclists they’ve photographed during their 2 year journey around South Africa. Divided over 3 books, each will contain a different 55 stories, and also two essays each by local South African and major international cycling figures.

The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy and they have also collaborated with celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff to create an individual hand-painted watercolor map, based on Google Maps, to indicate the location of each of the portraits.

How are you funding this ambitious project and how can we all help ?

So far we have raised just over R166 000 through our first two successful Kickstarter campaigns and we are aiming for another R100 000 with our current campaign. The project has grown far beyond our initial expectations and it is now almost 2 years since we set off on our first ride. We have 20 days to go and the Kickstarter funding date is the 8th of December. Kickstarter is an all or nothing platform and we need to reach our target by the set date if we want any of the funds raised up to that point. The amount of funds we have available has a very direct affect on the print quantities, cost and quality of the materials – so the more we can raise the better.

We’ve especially taken the Kickstarter route as we felt that the community funding concept fits with the content of the book and it has in turn created much opportunity to engage with people all around the world.

Stan & Nic

Why we are doing this…

As you’ll see we are not photographing people who ride purely for exercise or recreation, but instead we are focussing on those who use bicycles as an integral tool in their day-to-day existence. We’ve noticed that in South Africa, especially in the major centers, very few people use bicycles as mode of transport. This is very strange since we have no proper public transport infrastructure, and that which does exist is expensive and unsafe.

Given all the benefits of cycling – independence, health, fitness, cost-effectiveness, environmentally friendly – we would love to encourage the use of bicycles in South Africa amongst all social classes.

They also offer rewards for pledging money, like these unique limited-edition hand-woven Eddy Merckx portraits made by Tumi’s Bicycle Club in Lesotho.

Watch the video!

Bicycle Portraits – A photographic book in the making from Bicycle Portraits on Vimeo.

Orders for the book / pledges can be made via Kickstarter:
www.bicycleportraits.co.za/kickstarter

Thanks so much Nic! Good luck with the last 20 days!

http://thewishingbird.blogspot.com/

This weekend saw the photographic exhibition of young and crazy-talented photographer Ross Garrett. There’s not much to say about him except that he’s one of South Africa’s  top photographers, he’s incredibly humble, he has a pig for a pet and he takes denture droppingly beautiful photographs. Keep your mouths closed folks. (The pig’s name is Moomin, by the way)

http://injozirossgarrett.blogspot.com/

http://www.injozi.biz/

Young Cape Townian Kent Andreasen shows us a few of his dreamy pics.

My name is Kent Andreasen and I am 20 years old. I am from Cape Town and currently studying film. I hope to pursue a career in the both photography and film spheres.  My biggest influence is my pursuit for good times and unique experiences which stems from my desire to explore my environment. I enjoy using film and digital cameras because they both bring different aspects to the table and I like to experiment with all forms of photography which I feel help me improve and learn as photographer. Please take look at my blog and flickr page for some of my work. 

What happens to the photos that aren’t chosen to be featured in a fashion spread? Well they are left to “gather pixel dust” (as Lauren Fowler would say) in a desktop folder somewhere. We’ve decided to get out our virtual feather duster and dust off these beautiful pics that weren’t selected for Alix-Rose Cowie’s beautiful fashion shoot In the hall with the candle stick.

While I’m dusting, Alix-Rose tells us a bit more about herself, her photography, her inspirations and aspirations.

Hi, I’m Alix-Rose, nothing to do with Guns ‘n Roses. Promise. My creative career started after I graduated with a degree in Art Direction in 2008. In 2009 I worked for an ad agency and left in early 2010 to do something that suited me better.

I did a few short courses at the Cape Town School of Photography to find out what an aperture was and how to adjust it. I learned the rest and am still learning through doing as many self-motivated shoots as I can. Most of these with Kate Desmarais (katedesmarais.tumblr.com) as stylist. I knew I was on the right track when I made the top ten for the ELLE New Talent Photographer Search last year. I now balance being the editor of Between 10and5 (www.10and5.com) with taking photos and working on eventually being worthy of the title ‘Photographer’.

I shoot digital, do minimal retouching and use only natural light. My ideal fashion photography is found in the pages of Lula and Frankie magazines. I love the work of Valerie Phillips, Nirrimi Hakanson, Anna Wolf and locally, Amy Scheepers. I don’t think there are enough female fashion photographers in the world.

These are some unseen pics from a shoot I did for Kate Chauncey’s vintage clothing label, The Rah-Rah Room. Stylist – Kate Desmarais, Model – Lala Quail.

My website is very slowly coming together so in the meantime please visit my blog – alixisforhire.blogspot.com

Thanks Alix!

Filed under: Photography Tagged: photography ]]> http://handsomethings.com/2011/08/25/alix-rose-cowies-discarded-ones/feed/ 1 hannekes Handsome-Things-2 Handsome-Things 1 Handsome-things-3 Handsome-Things-4 http://handsomethings.com/2011/08/23/ponte-city/ http://handsomethings.com/2011/08/23/ponte-city/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:26:43 +0000 hanneke http://handsomethings.com/?p=1962 ]]> Ponte Televisions, Windows, Doors.

Last week young South African photographer Mikhael Subotzky and British Artist Patrick Waterhouse walked away with the coveted Discovery Award at the Les Rencontres D’Arles 2011 for their collaborative work Ponte City.

“The Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award goes to a photographer or an artist making use of photography, whose work has recently been discovered internationally or deserves to be. The winner is chosen by a vote of photography professionals present in Arles during opening week and receives 25,000 euros. The nominators are all new executive directors of international institutions and each has chosen three nominees, whose work is exhibited.”

“The pair, who met while Subotzky was in residency in Italy, have spent the past three years documenting the decline of the tallest residential block in Africa to a ghetto. Comprising photographs of the Joburg building, found objects, interviews and historical archives, the body of work was presented at Arles in a towering installation.” via Artthrob

Images via Goodman Gallery, Subotzkystudio and Collabcubed

Just like the demonic little girl climbed through the TV screen in The Ring, I want to climb into Amy Scheepers’ photographs.

This is Amy’s  latest shoot which was inspired by Pierrot the stock character of French pantomime and Commedia Dell Arte. “The sad clown, pining for the love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin.” (Wikipedia Pierrot)

We’ve featured Amy a few months ago and you can read the post HERE.

Simon Weller was born in England in 1972. His career began in 1996 as a graphic designer for HarperCollins and Penguin Books in London. Since 2001 he has worked as a photographer for a diverse range of international clients.

In March 2011 Simon’s first book South African Township Barbershops & Salons was published by Mark Batty, with distribution by Random House in North America and by Thames & Hudson in the rest of the world. In June 2011 The New York Times critic Steven Heller selected the book for the newspaper’s ‘Summer Reading’ list.

In late 2011 Simon will be exhibiting photographs from his book in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The shows are in conjunction with Familia Skateboarding who will be unveiling five signature decks featuring Simon’s township barbershop images.

Have a look at Simon’s website for more photography.

You can buy the book here.

via Brainpickings.org

I stumbled upon this quirky fashion shoot by Theunis Stofberg. Theunis lectures Fashion Photography at Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion and Design and he’s currently busy with his Masters in Photography at Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

“Driven by a search for excellent photos and photographic opportunities, Theunis Stofberg is inspired by his love of fashion photography and a sense that in order to be an exceptional fashion photographer you need to understand fashion. His discerning eye and passion are evident in his photos where the setting and ambiance complement the fashion. Theunis’ life experience informs much of his technique and knowledge of photography.”

Check out his site for more: http://www.f8photos.co.za/

All the menswear, styling and creative direction was done by fashion designer Karin Hoffmann. She sells some of her womenswear collection at MILK in Long street, Cape Town. For more check out her blog: http://www.karinhoffmann.blogspot.com/

Michaela Verity is a freelance photographer and owner of Black Dog Photographic Studios in Observatory. She also works for the Big Issue and some of her covers include Ryan O’Conner and The Dirty Skirts.

In my first question I flex some journalistic muscle and show off my deep knowledge of photography by asking her whether she owns any pets.

I live in Rosebank, Cape Town, which is a bittersweet deal as everyone who lives in Rosebank seems to have at least 50 dogs and puppies. They all congregate in the park after work and I am eternally jealous of these dog owners. So no, I don’t have pets. And yes, that’s a sore point. My dog, George, lives in Brakpan. I visit him as much as I can.

At the moment I am working hard at spreading word of Black Dog Studios. I started this business at the beginning  of the year with a fellow photographer Sally Mellish. We offer studio and community darkroom hire at VERY affordable prices. Working on the studio takes up most of my time. Building something sustainable is my goal at the moment, that and keeping myself fed. I love to show the space to new clients, it brings me so much joy. We’re at  86 Station Road, Observatory.

My photographs are all just an extension of a larger idea. I don’t like to single any out and I hate to talk about what I enjoy about photographing.   Although I am hardly technical in my approach I do love handling large analogue cameras and I find nothing more satisfying than printing my own photographs in the darkroom.

Have a look at Michaela’s website for more.

Black dog Studios and Photographic Resource Centre offers a black studio, Cove Wall and colorama back drops.  Great selection of lighting for additional hire, amazing natural light.  Full dressing room facility.  Darkroom printing.

- Use it so we can make sure she stays fed!

You can email her at mvertity1@gmail.com

Thanks Michaela!

Luca Vincenzo keeps a diary by capturing his life on film. And what a colourful life he leads. He tells us a bit more about the parts that are not caught on film.

The disposable diaries is the title of my on-going photo journal or photo blog or photo diary or whatever they are called.

I am an aspiring art director from Cape Town and I started bitoCREATIVE as a production company for my endeavours into video (see the film reel http://www.bitocreative.com/film-reel/) and photography.

Otherwise, my current project is Monarch Mountain Records (no web links yet), a music label and sound design company, with TeeJay from coffeestainedvinyl (http://soundcloud.com/coffeestainedvinyl) and the band New Holland. Our record label is looking to work with some brilliant new acts from South Africa, most notably Holiday Murray and la.vi.

Also, my day job is presenting a daily radio show on 2OVfm (www.2oceansviberadio.com), a new digital radio station broadcasting from Cape Town.

In my spares, I share things that are nice to look at or listen to on a blog http://killingbirdswithstones.wordpress.com/

Thanks Luca!

I’ve been seeing people tagged on Facebook in the I’ve Been Shot in Jo’burg albums, but I never knew exactly what it was about until I saw their stall at the Market on Main this past Sunday and had a chat to Bernard Viljoen. I was blown away.

I was shot in Joburg is a business venture which was established to provide a platform for former street kids who received photography training through the iwasshot Foundation (NPO).

The children receive 6 months of basic photography training and they use disposable cameras to document their immediate environment. In this case Hillbrow. This culminates in an annual exhibition. From there they receive more in-depth digital photography and computer training for another 6 months. Once they have completed the year they can join the I was Shot brand and start generating their own income.

The cool thing is YOU can book these photographers for your next event and help them make a living from their newly acquired skill.

Other ways to help: + Buy a canvas print from the collection. + Buy the iwasshot T-shirt. + Order your iwasshot photo online – www.iwasshot.co.za + Attend their exhibitions (mail them to get on the mailing list). + Or simply donate to their foundation to support future projects with street children.

For more information contact Bernard Viljoen info@bernard.co.za

Wow. Great work guys.

“It’s a known fact that too many cooks spoil the broth. In this case though I beg to differ. Kat Trim, Nicola Cooper and myself threaten to get together and create. A lot. It normally starts with a heck of a lot of conceptualising, then ends up being a night at my house drinking too much red wine and some adlib ideas flying around like a wild bird out a cage, which is awesome. That’s just the way I like it. Don’t spoil a beautiful thing by thinking it to death. Think it, try it, be it. If it doesn’t work then only change your mind.”

Have a look at more of Jacqui’s photography here.

“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

I am 20 years old and currently finishing my third year as a photography student at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography. (I will graduate at the end of the 2011 with a B.A. in Applied Design and my major being photography.) My film photographs are mainly taken with my 35mm Holga and either underwater disposable or normal disposable cameras. I am interested in double and multi exposures which I experiment with using my Holga.

I am drawn to the beauty of light, water and the ocean. Three of my favourite things. My friends and travelling are two of my inspirations – I have amazingly talented, beautiful friends. My future plans include moving to Cape Town in the new year and trying to assist and build up a portfolio as a freelance photographer. I am interested in conceptual fashion photography so I am hoping to gain experience in this genre of photography as soon as possible.

I am not that good at describing myself very well but here is a poem and a quote (above) that I love: