Francois Visser Interlude

Francois Visser

Interlude

Francois Visser Interlude

Francois Visser

Interlude

Foreword Helen Jennings 9

1. Pikipiki Riders 11

2. Impermanent Places 41

3. The Great Desert and the Little Desert 69

4. Teenagers 97

5. Alluvial 125

6. Super Acrobats 147

Four strong, smiling acrobats spin, bend and fly through the air in matching outfits, their impressive display of balance and coordination creating a joyous feast for the eye.

A motorcyclist sits astride his pimped out Star cruiser, the trusty ride that takes him over the rugged, agricultural highlands he calls home. Staring confidently into the camera’s lens, his demeanour is at ease and assured as he prepares to rev up his engine and carry on his way.

A group of teenage girls hang out together during a school excursion to a public swimming pool. They’re best friends and it’s the weekend and the sun is shining and life is as sweet as the fizzy pop they’ve just bought from the tuck shop.

A seemingly endless desert landscape fills the near and the far. The reddest, virgin earth meets the bluest, brightest sky, an inviting mountain disrupting the vast horizon with its soft, windswept peaks.

These special, crystallised moments join many more like them in this photography book by Francois Visser. Interlude is a pictorial chronicle of his thoughtful, solo travels throughout eastern and southern Africa. The artist has been drawn as much to the beauty of the region’s nature as to its people while documenting a tapestry of subjects across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

Some of the pictures are due to happenstance encounters, the precious fruits of travelling to new places and greeting new people, while others are a result of long-nurtured, discrete collaborations. Whether taking portraits of hard working alluvial miners and happy-go-lucky performers, or capturing dusty roads and flower-strewn fields, each series presented within these pages shares a sense of sublime dignity that transform the every day into the extraordinary.

Born in Cape Town, Visser studied psychology at home before working in advertising in London and then moving into photography. His images are nuanced with a minimalist undercurrent that traverses the complex space between observer and subject. His personal sense of craft and structure is driven by an experimentation that possesses a considered sensitivity to his environment and urges him on to his next troubadour adventure.

Helen Jennings is a writer, consultant and the editorial director of Nataal, a digital platform and magazine celebrating global African visual arts, fashion, music and culture.

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Pikipiki Riders

The Southern Highlands of Tanzania are home to agricultural communities. The roads are largely inaccessible, making motorcycles the main mode of transport between villages. Whether it’s weaving through the mountain hills to visit a family member, going to work or transporting goods, motorcycles are an integral part of the daily commute. They are the nodes that connect these communities. The motorbikes are often customised with accessories such as cable ties and riders will greet each other stoically as they pass each other along the paths.

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Impermanent Places

An anecdotal collection of images taken on the road stretching from Zimbabwe through the Caprivi Strip in Namibia towards the Kaokoland, a region where temperatures soar and dust storms are common. Portraits of Herero and Ovahimba men, Mudimba women from Angola, and the surrounding environment are among the transient moments recorded here as traveller and observer.

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The Great Desert and the Little Desert

These photographs were taken in the benign Namaqualand and the vast Namib-Naukluft during numerous visits to the region. The desert landscape is a quiet place that is in a constant dream-like flux invoking a feeling of solitude as the ebb and flow of the wind shifts the horizon into new patterns. Majestic sands, soft skies and no one in sight allows for time travel to a place that existed long ago.

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Teenagers

Immaculata High School is situated in Wittebome, a suburb on the outskirts of Cape Town. Every summer, the school provides field day excursions to various outdoor pools as a recreational outlet. The public pool serves as a safe and tranquil utopia where the teenagers can escape harsher realities, have fun and form friendships. In the sizzling heat, a lack of pretense and the notion of invincibility permeate a time in life bristling with possibility.

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Alluvial

Small-scale mining is disseminated throughout Tanzania where miners often work independently panning for alluvial gold using local resources. During the gold rush in the 1990s, thousands of miners descended upon the little, remote village of Amani in the Iringa region. Two decades later, the practice continuous as a way of life and subsistence here. This series of portraits features miners Wilson, Kidmayo, Frans, Mzungu, Simon, Gwivaha, Leonard, Husen and Neglo, who all live near the village.

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Super Acrobats

Tanzanian acrobats Iddy, Massele, Lutha and Hamisi are the Super Acrobats. They are best friends who moved to Cape Town from Arusha five years ago. A friendship forged through the everyday hustle in the midst of summer days, busking in the streets, travelling through Africa, and taking pride in their sport. Whether it’s training on the beach and open fields, or performing in the city centre, their animated personalities and equanimity conjures up a tangible feeling of excitement and optimism.

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Pikipiki Riders Iringa Region, Tanzania October 2016 Impermanent Places Kaokoland, Namibia, and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe July 2015 The Great Desert and the Little Desert Namaqualand, South Africa, and Namib-Naukluft, Namibia 2014-2015 Teenagers Klapmuts and Milnerton, Cape Town, South Africa 2015-2016 Alluvial Amani, Iringa Region, Tanzania September-October 2016 Super Acrobats Strand, Muizenberg, Bellville, Salt River, Khayelitsha and Zandvlei, Cape Town, South Africa 2015-2017

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Š 2018 for images: Francois Visser Š 2018 for texts: Helen Jennings, Francois Visser Design and layout Gabrielle Guy Printing Hansa Print Bookbinding Graphicraft Produced, printed and bound in Cape Town, South Africa