The Storytellers Editors letter

Your life is a story, you tell it with your work, how you live, and the people in your life with whom you craft your story. It can be a one-liner or an intricate tapestry of tales, it is your choice.

Sometimes the story takes a crazy twist.

My dad’s story ended in the most peculiar way, one that no one could have predicted.

The virus he did not believe in, took him swiftly, and as the nurse told me, mid-sentence. Talking till the bitter end. Quite apt. That was not the news he wanted to make. It was not the story I wanted to tell.

Since 2020, it has been impossible to do a magazine of the size that you are reading now. After my dad passed of Covid, we sat in isolation and watched as magazines were folding one by one. Facebook posts were traumatic. My friends lost parents, one friend lost both parents in a space of 24 hours. We lost people we cannot imagine living without, and the losses have not ended.

Doing an issue with all original content is a crazy undertaking at the best of times. In turbulent times, it is sheer madness. Imagine a convoy of two vehicles packed to the brim with equipment, millions of rands worth of garments, expensive cars, being responsible for a group of people, feeding them, keeping them hydrated. All the logistics! Getting models safely back home and keeping creatives cool under pressure. It is a big production. We were so intrepid - we did it twice. Once to the Kruger and once to the Karoo.

My designer says I am the silent DJ, mixing people and talents up, lowering a mood here, lifting a spirit there, mixing together pages. Marco, our beauty editor and make up artist, up at four in the morning to start on fresh faced models.The team running down river sandbanks at dawn with lights and equipment to get the perfect photograph. Stylist struggling with rails of clothes, making sure not a speck of dusts touches the fabric.