PORTRAYALS
JAC DE VILLIERS
PORTRAYALS 1976-2024
PHOTOGRAPHED, WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY JAC DE VILLIERS
PORTRAYALS PORTRAYALS is a selection of my favourite portraits – some stylised, some snapped – taken from 1976 to 2024. In portrait photography, one experiences an intimate but brief relationship with someone who is, more often than not, a total stranger. My job is to capture and portray the essence of my subject – a moment of revelation becomes a moment preserved. When I prepare to make a portrait, I have a rough mental image of what I’m after, and then plan accordingly. Through the choice of location and the use of lighting and sometimes props, I try to create a narrative around my subject. Although the staging can be controlled, the result is often unpredictable – ideally collaborative and engaging, but always challenging.
Self-portrait at Long Street Baths, Cape Town – 2009
EARLY WORK
I AM LONELINESS
I was born and raised in Cape Town, and it has remained my base.
The Beatles sang: All the lonely people, where do they all come from.
I remember the exact moment when, as a 12-year-old In 1960, I realised
All the lonely people, where do they all belong.
that I wanted to become a photographer: It was when I saw a photograph of Ernest Hemingway by Karsh of Ottawa on the cover of a photographic
In 1978 I photographed the 27-year-old Stephen in front of the old
yearbook. Dramatically lit, the portrait appeared more vivid than life itself,
Valkenberg manor house for a magazine article on loneliness written by the
and the creative process involved seemed utterly magical. It still does today.
journalist Lin Sampson. We meet him at Centrum, a section of Valkenberg Hospital for young people who have difficulty relating to themselves, the
In 1968 I dropped out of university to work as an assistant to the talented
world and each other. An inscription on a wall reads: “When a person has
Cape Town photographer Beresford McNally. In the early 1970s I studied
a real friend, he learns not only to appreciate another human being, but he
filmmaking in London, and in 1975 returned to Cape Town to open a
also learns to understand himself better.”
photographic studio. I’ve been lucky to have honed my skills in a pre-digital age that taught me how to master the different camera formats, from large
Stephen said: “At university I became intensely aware that while other
to small, and also taught me the value of good printing.
people had friends to go to, I didn’t. People were enjoying themselves, and I was missing out. I’m now learning fairly basic social skills, things which I
I was influenced by the photographer Bill Brandt who was a master of
probably should have learnt twenty years ago ...”
composition and chiaroscuro, creating a wonderful sense of melodrama in his stark portraits. He once wrote: “It is part of the photographer’s job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time, or of the traveller who enters a strange country.”
Aunt Kitnooi Johnstone, Churchhaven – 1978
Stephen – 1978
Mr. du Plessis and his son, small-town traders, Richmond, Cape Province – 1976
Mr. & Mrs. White, small-town traders, Richmond, Cape Province – 1976
QUEEN OF THE WEST COAST This is the queen of the West Coast, Ouma Ellen Barsby, whom I photographed in Churchhaven on her 98th birthday in 1983, with a platter of grilled haarders – the staple diet of the West Coast of the Cape. The haarder is a silvery mullet and its flesh is firm and moist and slightly oily and tastes out of this world. Many local people, who are mostly subsistence fishermen, are descended from Norwegian whalers. From the mid-1980’s Churchhaven, located on the Langebaan lagoon in the West Coast National Park of South Africa, became my second home. I love the drama of a typical winter scene where a strip of pink flamingos seperate a saturated sky from the turquoise lagoon. Nowhere have I seen such a sudden and definite change between seasons: the rough south-easter of late spring seems to drain the lush green of winter from the veld, leaving it dry and grey.
Ouma Ellen Barsby, Churchhaven – 1983
VIRTUOUS REALITY
THE COLOUR PINK
Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the spiritual leader of the struggle against
The author and philosopher Rabbi Aidan Steinsaltz was the spiritual leader
Apartheid. Dressed in his clerical robes, the diminutive Tutu always created a
of the Russian Jews in Israel, and a walking encyclopedia. When, in 2004, I
stir when he entered a room, carrying a positive spirit with him wherever he
photographed him in Jerusalem, he expressed the view that the colour pink
went – one that transformed the mythical and the mystical into a democratic
represented “false happiness”. I know exactly what he meant.
narrative that could be understood by everyone. The poet Dara Yen Elerath goes further: “Pink is an unhappy hue … It is the He was generous and magnanimous – a real mensch, who helped to hold the
colour of fingernails shorn away, blood dripping from the waxen quick …
country together with kindness and wit. He was also a wonderful person to
The colour of harm that lingers on cut shins for days. It is only a tincture
photograph because he understood the process, and covered his eyes with
of desire, and so carries the least conviction. It is the tint that drifts away
his hands to illustrate the saying, “See no evil”.
unnoticed in the night. Be frightened of pink. Do not think it the innocent color of dresses or barrettes, the blush of areolas, strawberry snow cones, or grenadine martinis. Try, for once, to see it rightly. It is frightening.”
Desmond Tutu, spiritual leader – 2003
Aidan Steinsaltz, spiritual leader and author – 2004
MISTER SANTANA ‘YAPPIN’ AWAY
A MOMENT PRESERVED
The American guitarist Carlos Santana spoke about his universal sense of
There’s an exhilarating moment – a sacred moment – when the composition
religion: “There’s too much slippin’ ‘n’ slidin’, too much shuckin’ ‘n’ jivin’.
in my camera somehow rearranges and translates the chaos around me into
We need moral rejuvenation. When you put your toe in the ocean it
harmony, captured in the split second when I press the shutter.
doesn’t matter if it’s the Pacific or the Atlantic, there is only really one sea. So Buddism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism is all the same. If you
In 2004 I photographed the legendary singer Cesária Évora in the foyer of a
ask God his religion, what’s he gonna say? Too much slippin’ ‘n’ slidin’, too
small three-star hotel in Paris. She kept us waiting for four hours, and on her
much shuckin’ ‘n’ jivin’...”
arrival looked tired from travelling. When we asked her to write something, she couldn’t – she couldn’t read or write. Once in front of the camera, like a true professional, she perked up and started singing me her song Sodade: If you write me a letter, I will write you back … If you forget me, I will forget you ... Until the day ... You come back ...
Carlos Santana, musician – 2004
Cesária Évora, singer – 2004
Hugh Masekela, musician – 2006
SCATTERLING OF AFRICA
ALMAL SE PÊL
The singer, songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and musical activist Johnny
Hier sit die manne in die Royal Hotel
Clegg was a great unifier. His trademark blend of Zulu rhythms and Western
Ek ken mos vir almal, ek is almal se pêl
pop earned him the title of Le Zulu Blanc – the White Zulu, as the French
Luister ou vrind, daar agter die bar
called him. His skin was white, but his heart was Zulu. In a great honour,
Hoe lyk dit met nog so ‘n doppie daar
he was given the name Madlebe, a Zulu clan name which means ‘big ears’. Clegg and his wife, Jenny, had two separate wedding ceremonies, one
David Kramer – poet, musician and actor – has played a major role in
Jewish and one Zulu. Following his death, his family visited Sipho Mchunu,
preserving South African oral traditions, and his lyrics, often influenced by
his erstwhile partner in the band Juluka, to perform a Zulu ritual celebrating
Bob Dylan and Boeremusiek, have become part of South African folklore.
Johnny’s spirit crossing into the ancestral world. He had written a song
They reflect the sadness and happiness of small-town lives, rugby, and
titled The Crossing, about this sacred transition of becoming an ancestor,
local characters. He is funny, ironic and often political, though seldom in
and continuing to guard one’s family from the afterworld. Among his best-
hatred or anger. People love him because he relates to their South African
known songs was Asimbonanga (“We have not seen him”), dedicated to
background. His knowledge of the country is unique. For example, he
Nelson Mandela and others who had suffered under the Apartheid regime.
discovered a guy called Hannes Coetzee who slides a teaspoon clamped in
It appealed to the next generation of South Africans to carry on Mandela’s
his teeth over a string of his guitar to create a tinny twang. David Kramer
democratic and unifying message. It was banned locally in 1986, but gained
has lit up South Africa with his brilliance and energy.
worldwide popularity. Clegg was a great South African who helped to pave the way to a better and more unified society.
Johnny Clegg, musician – 2006
David Kramer, musician – 2006
AFRIKAANS IS COOL The Afrikaans rapper Zander Tyler, a.k.a. Jack Parow, has done a lot to make
(`’So who will stand by me in the cold morning frost? Who will stand by
Afrikaans cool, celebrating his origins in Cape Town’s northern suburbs, and
me when the dark creeps in softly? Who will lie in my arms when the turtle
exporting the language back to Mother Holland, where he stages his own
doves call, When the sun rises looking for fresh blood?”)
music festival, Parowfest, to sold-out crowds in Utrecht. Reflecting his continued belief in family values, he acknowledges the role When it comes to his music-making as a 24/7 job, his success is due to
played by his mother, Ronelle, in supporting his rap career, and salutes his
staying true to himself and having a way with words that is unique and
late father, Edwin, in his moving song Tussen Stasies: So ek trek die kombers
poetic: So wie gaan by my staan in die koue oggendryp? Wie gaan by
oor my kop en lê oop voete ... En stap die lang pad in my pa se groot skoene.
my staan as die donker suutjies inkruip? Wie gaan in my arms lê as die
(Between Stations: “So I pull the blanket over my head and lie with bare feet
tortelduiwe roep, as die son opstaan op soek na vars bloed?
... And walk the long road in my father’s large shoes”.)
Zander Tyler, rapper – 2010
NICO’S FINAL CONCERT On 5 April 2006, Nico Carstens, then 80 years old, played his last concert
Bob Dylan’s song Joey could well describe Nico: Born in the year of who
in the Belville Civic Centre. He was the master of Boeremusiek, which he
knows when. Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion. Always on the
sometimes fused with swinging ‘African music’. His song Zambezi was
outside of whatever side there was. When they asked him why it had to be that
probably South Africa’s most popular tune of all time and became a number
way, ‘Well,’ he answered, ‘just because.’
one hit, topping the charts in London for six weeks in 1955 – the longest run until the advent of the Beatles.
From being the swankiest South African musician, he ended up living in a single room in Parow, a low-rent area in Cape Town’s Northern suburbs.
At the end of the concert, he was asked: “So, Nico, what have you got to tell the audience about life, from your long experience?” At first, he said nothing. And then he said: “I’ve got nothing to say.”
Nico Carstens, musician – 2006
PAVAROTTI AND I There was sadness in the air on the day in 2005 when our team met the tenor Luciano Pavarotti in Jo’burg – Pope John Paul II had died the previous day. Once in front of the camera, though, he was his charming best, singing softly to himself and chatting away. I photographed him in his hotel, the Palazzo Montecasino, and behind him a table in his room was laden with his breakfast, an opulent medieval feast. At the end of the shoot, Pavarotti asked me to hand him my camera, and took a photograph of me. When I use the portrait, I sometimes credit it: “Photograph by Luciano Pavarotti.”
Luciano Pavarotti, tenor – 2005
PEOPLE ARE LIVING THERE
AN EYE FOR DEMOCRACY
Besides Shakespeare, Athol Fugard is the most performed playwright in
In 1972 I saw the play Sizwe Banzi is Dead when it premiered at the Space
the world. He wrote plays featuring ordinary people, mostly South Africans,
Theatre in Cape Town. This two-man play was written by Athol Fugard in
who find themselves in extraordinary situations, influenced by politics and
collaboration with the actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. It opens in
passion, illustrating “Man’s inhumanity to man” at its most raw, and told in a
a photographer’s studio where a man, Sizwe Banzi, has his portrait taken
unique voice.
to replace the picture in a dead man’s pass book, thereby giving him a better chance to get a job and survive. Like so many of Fugard’s plays, it
Near Humewood Beach in Port Elizabeth, the absurd sign “HAPPY VALLEY”
had a relatively simple structure that brilliantly illustrated the hostility and
configured in red electric bulbs hangs over a neglected stretch of land
inhumanity of pass books, which all black Africans had to carry under Apartheid.
where ordinary people walk and play. At night, the sign creates a theatrical
It was an international success due to its simplicity, humour and humanity,
atmosphere, but in the harsh light of day the set feels a little sad. Back in the
and launched the highly successful international careers of Kani and Ntshona.
summer of 1990, I decided that this would be the perfect place to photograph Fugard. As usual he was polite and humble, qualities he traded on.
In 1975, after returning from a successful run in the United States, Kani was assaulted by police and beaten up so badly that he lost the sight in his left eye.
Athol Fugard, playwright and actor – 1990
John Kani, actor – 2006
STORIES OF LOVE AND LOATHING
THE INSANITY OF CERTAINTY
It’s October 2004 in Jo’burg, and the jacarandas are beginning to bloom.
On 30 April 2004, our team drive from our hotel in Waikiki along the coast
With more than 10 million trees, the city of gold is said to harbour the
to the north of Hawaii, past huge Banyan trees that grow their roots on the
world’s largest man-made urban forest, a fact reflected in neighbourhood
outside of their trunks, stretching down from their branches. As they age,
names like Greenside and Parktown. The latter is also the home of the
each tree seems to become a small forest by itself. In the early afternoon we
renowned South African novelist Nadine Gordimer.
meet the renowned novelist Paul Theroux.
I photograph her in her study, filled with filtered daylight. Her expression is
Theroux’s candour and sense of irony is compelling: “Being unbalanced,
clear and persuasive, with the faintest suggestion of a smile. She’s eighty,
dysfunctional and feeling inadequate made me a writer. It made me humble
and she’s lovely.
when I realised that I’m not the same as other people. I feel incomplete. When you look at me everything seems fine … but it’s not fine, and I think
Gordimer told finely observed stories about ordinary people, and how
that people who have created something in this world did so because they
politics affected their psychological and moral make-up. Stories of love
felt incomplete. Having something wrong with me has served me well. In
and loathing, told against the backdrop of her racially divided country. She
my opinion, certainty has its roots in something that needs to be corrected.
achieved international recognition, and won the Booker Prize as well as the
The person who is certain is certain almost because he is mistaken, and the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
only value really is doubt, doubting the validity of something and asking questions. Being certain to me is a form of insanity.” Theroux then asked: “Did all of this make sense?” It did, because it also applied to me.
Nadine Gordimer, novelist – 2004
Paul Theoux, author – 2004
STORYTELLER
THE PROSE WITHOUT THE CON
In 1995 I photographed Sir Laurens van der Post in front of a paperbark tree
Lin Sampson, my journalist friend with whom I’ve worked for about 40
in the garden of the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, that seemed to have
years, is known for her prickly, insightful writing – her prose without the con,
become his home. He was a Jungian mystic, a hero to many and a close
so to speak. Her attitude is subversive – her impoliteness is graceful, and her
friend of, and spiritual adviser to Prince Charles who, according to British
work has verbal energy.
newspapers, he taught to talk to his plants. He was regarded as a national treasure until 2002, when the British journalist and author J.D.F. Jones wrote a biography about him titled Storyteller in which he questioned his honesty and sincerity, and claimed he was a fraud. Nevertheless, Sir Laurens will be remembered as a spellbinding storyteller and a figure of mesmerising charm.
Laurens van der Post, writer, soldier, fantasist – 1995
Lin Sampson, writer – 1990
THE WAY OF THE BOW
SALT SPRAY, TANGLED BUSHES AND STUBBORNNESS
Celebrities typically have busy schedules, so it’s important to avoid being
The Māori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa (‘Land of the Long White
late for meetings, and just as important to avoid being early. It’s worse to
Cloud’). I became aware of its nasty weather when we arrived in Okarito,
be early, as the person might not be fully prepared for the meeting.
the sleepy Westland coastal village where the novelist Keri Hulme lives in an
When our team arrived half an hour early, waking up the novelist Paulo
octagonally shaped beach shack. The sea was a dull emerald colour,
Coehlo from his afternoon nap at his house in Lourdes, France, he was
the sea sand was grey and clammy, and the clouds seemed at a tipping
unimpressed. However, he soon cheered up and demonstrated his archery
point of saturation.
skills, which is his meditative ritual. In 1985, much to her own surprise, Hulme won the Booker Prize for her novel In 1986, while walking the 800-kilometre Camino de Santiago in
The Bone People. I instantly liked this gutsy, pipe-smoking, engaging woman
Northwestern Spain, Coelho had a spiritual awakening that would change
who calls herself “lucky enough to be a mongrel”, due to her Māori, Scots
his life. The following year he wrote The Alchemist. The message of the
and English heritage. In The Bone People she writes as if she were exorcising
book is perhaps summed up in a single sentence of hope: “When you want
a mythological and intensely intimate vision, mixing Māori mysticism with
something, the whole universe conspires to help you”. This simple message
unadulterated human psychology. It touched a raw nerve in New Zealand.
resonated to such a degree that The Alchemist sold over 150 million copies!
That makes it number 5 of the most read books in the world.
She seemed to have arisen from the land itself, a lifelike representation of salt spray, tangled bushes and stubbornness.
Paulo Coehlo, author – 2004
Keri Hulme, novelist and poet – 2004
TROUBLED HEART
THINGS FALL APART
Rian Malan is an average musician and a brilliant writer, but prefers playing
In 1958 Chinua Achebe wrote the globally acclaimed novel Things Fall
music to writing. His book My Traitor’s Heart burst onto the scene in 1990,
Apart which deals with the influence that 19th century colonial forces and
to the point where he featured on the cover of Esquire Magazine. Few
European missionaries had on African tribal cultural life.
South Africans were ready for its raw truths, but Rian wrote the truth. He had always dealt in it, however hard and difficult this might be. His sense of
The Bard University campus is about 4 hours north of New York by car,
fairness led to years of investigation into various causes including AIDS, the
where I photograph Professor Chinua Achebe sitting in his wheelchair on his
Coligny mining disaster, and the uncovering of the complex and troubling
verandah, framed against gauze windows that set the winter scene of naked
history behind the global hit song The Lion Sleeps Tonight, originally
trees in the misty light. He’s dressed against the cold in dramatic fashion in
composed by Solomon Linda, a Zulu migrant worker and musician. The song
a black beret with a black-and-white scarf. I come closer and frame his lined
was exploited by the international music industry as well as by Disney using
face in the square format of my Hasselblad camera. His is a portrait of power
it as part of the soundtrack of its globally successful The Lion King. Thanks to
and serenity, but also of sadness, for things did fall apart in his native Nigeria
Malan’s expose in Rolling Stone magazine, Solomon Linda is now recognised
where he remains persona non grata.
as the rightful originator of a global anthem — and his family finally received a share of the song’s immense success.
Rian Malan, author and musician – 1992
Chinua Achebe, author – 2004
DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE ORGASM
BAD SEX
Isabel Allende is the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.
Writing about sex is tricky – it can easily be cringe-making.
Her books, notably The House of Spirits and City of Beasts, are marked by magical realism. She’s a feisty and sensual writer, and says: “Writing is like
Every year, England’s Literary Review bestows a Bad Sex in Fiction
making love. Don’t worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process.”
Award on the author of the worst sex scene in a novel. The award was established by Auberon Waugh in 1993 to highlight the “crude, tasteless, and often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in contemporary novels, and to discourage it”. In 2010, Rowan Somerville won the award for his novel The Shape of Her. He had written: “The wet friction of her, tight around him, the sight of her open, stretched around him, the cleft of her body, it tore a climax out of him with a final lunge. Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with too-blunt a pin, he screwed himself into her.” It’s this sentence that won Somerville the well-deserved prize, which he accepted with good humour. “There is nothing more English than bad sex,” he responded, “so on behalf of the entire nation, I would like to thank you.”
Isabel Allende, author – 2004
Rowan Somerville, author – 2009
BUSINESS GURU
LATERAL THINKER
According to the business writer Tom Peters, the most relevant insights
The prolific author and academic Edward de Bono taught people to think.
into the strengths and weaknesses of products are those of customers, and
He famously invented the expression lateral thinking, and explained it as
companies need to communicate with them consistently to gain their loyalty.
follows: “It’s the process of using information to bring about creativity and
He writes: “Change and change alone comes from one thing. It comes from
insight restructuring. Lateral thinking is closely related to insight, creativity
people who are incredibly irritated with the status quo.”
and humour. All four processes have the same basis. But whereas insight, creativity and humour can only be prayed for, lateral thinking is a more
He’s the only business guru who can turn a coffee spill into a case study on
deliberate process. It is as definite a way of using the mind as logical
leadership agility. He is a man who doesn’t just think outside the box — he
thinking, but a very different way.”
shreds the box, sets fire to it, and then demands that you give a TED Talk An interesting anecdote about him is that he once installed large mirrors
about the ashes.
in an office block with slow lifts, after which people waited patiently while looking at themselves, always an enduring hobby.
Tom Peters, business innovation author – 2004
Edward de Bono, lateral thinker – 2004
WORK IS MORE FUN THAN FUN Douglas Coupland is a prolific writer and artist who says he’s “never left art school”. His studio in Vancouver is neat and tidy, almost antiseptic, with oversized washing-powder box sculptures and life-sized toy soldiers guarding his seemingly solitary existence on Shampoo Planet (the title of one of his novels). “Remember,” he writes, “The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony.” His sensible advice: “Figure out what it is you don’t do very well, and then don’t do it.” And his motto is, “Work is more fun than fun.”
LOOSEN UP The novelist Tom Robbins’s house in Seattle was colourful and quirky, and reflected his sense of humour: a huge circus mural of a jungle woman wrestling a snake served as the backdrop for this portrait I took in 2004. His message was simply that people are too egotistical, and take themselves too seriously. “If the German crowds could have loosened up, thrown their sausage skins at Hitler and laughed him off the stage, we might have been spared the Holocaust,” he quipped. No wonder Even Cow Girls Get the Blues became a cult read.
Douglas Coupland, author & sculptor – 2004
Tom Robbins, author – 2004
WITH EYES WIDE OPEN I photographed artist William Kentridge in 1997 for an article “Movers and Shakers In South Africa” for the English Harpers and Queen magazine. He once said: “When we say there is a horse, we mean that there is something on the paper which triggers the recognition of HORSE in us. There is an important distinction between knowing and recognising. In some silent invisible vestibule of the brain, the images are caught, apprehended, interrogated, and sent, brushed up, to the resting place as a horse. The sheet of paper is simply a visible extension of the retina, an emblematic demonstration of that which we know but cannot see. Our projection, our moving out toward the image, is an essential part of what it is to see, to be in the world with our eyes open.”
LIGHTNESS OF SEEING I photographed the artist Beezy Bailey for the English Sunday Times in front of a large painting. Its floating figures reminded me of Marc Chagall’s work, with an added sense of playfulness. If I had to sum up his work, it would be “light of heart” – he paints from the heart in a playful way.
William Kentridge, artist – 1997
Beezy Bailey, artist – 1994
MIDDLE-AGED ENFANT TERRIBLE Now middle-aged, Brett Murray somehow remains the main contender for the title of the enfant terrible of South African art. He showed a lot of spunk (so to speak) by painting the presidential prick, thereby rubbing the political establishment up the wrong way. Today more than ever, it’s important that art should retain its ability to offend.
NEW FICTIONS Sanell Aggenbach moves seamlessly between painting, printmaking and sculpture. Her work is subtle, deals with memory, identity and history, and walks a tightrope between nostalgia and criticism, probing political and cultural undercurrents through the language of domesticity. Her paintings are enigmatic — muted in tone, and referencing old photographs and personal relics. They evoke a kind of fading memory.
Brett Murray, artist – 2009
Sanell Aggenbach, artist – 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHINESE GIRL On my 11th birthday I saw my first nude painting of a woman. I didn’t know what a naked woman looked like before I saw Birth of Venus exhibited in the Garlicks department store in Cape Town in 1959. It was painted by Vladimir Tretchikoff, and introduced me to the art world. Thanks Tretchi, on both counts. A few years later I saw the flamboyant Russian painter speeding along a highway in a pink open-top Cadillac, with his white hair flowing in the wind. Next to him, dressed in a white fur coat, sat his wife, Schmoogie (“little dog” in Russian). This was swank and glamour that Cape Town wasn’t used to. In 1996 Tretchikoff‘s most famous painting, Chinese Girl, had just turned fifty when the journalist Lin Sampson and I visited him and the charming Schmoogie (real name Natalie) at their home in Bishopscourt, Cape Town. His house was called “Tretchi”, written in pink neon lights. Although it was early in the morning, the champagne flowed, and I immediately warmed towards this wily old raconteur. This romantic man showed no bitterness or loss of vanity over the fickle art establishment’s shoddy, hot-and-cold treatment of him through the years. He was a great show-off, but I believe the patriotic Tretchikoff would have been proud of the posthumous celebration of his art at the National Gallery in 2011. Nazdarovie, Tretchi! Here’s to Venus rising from the lurid turquoise sea, water running in rivulets over her naked, waxy body.
Vladamir Tretchikoff, artist – 1996
PRAÇA DE TOUROS In 2009, I accompanied Nandipha Mntambo to Maputo in Mozambique to document her performance piece, Praça de Touros. In an empty arena, dressed in a cowhide matador outfit, she attempts to take on the persona of the bullfighter and that of the bull. She explains: “For a long time I had been thinking about fighting against myself, and how to express this inner conflict.” Photographing Nandipha performing in the Maputo bullring was a joyful experience. Her professionalism, her confident vision and her allure brought out, I would like to believe, the best in one. For all intents and purposes, she owned the bullring!
Nandipha Mntambo, artist – 2009
IRON MAN Sculptor, body builder, painter, performer, exhibitionist and world yo-yo champion Barend de Wet had a simple motto: ART = LIFE = ART. He was the complete artist in the sense that every step he took or move he made was regarded as part of a personal creative process. Claiming that his body was art, he loved stripping naked in public. And in the end people didn’t notice his nudity (no nudes is good nudes). I photographed his proudest creation, his new-born son Ben, and he then sold the picture printed as post cards. He died far too soon in a car accident in 2017. At the time of his death, he was happily married to my friend, the costume designer Diana Cilliers. She is one of the few individuals I would consider a true mensch — a woman of integrity, kindness and humanity.
Barend de Wet, artist – 1984
KIN
KIN
‘‘I am your relative,” Marc Quinn wrote on his hand when asked to write
The artist Gaby Cheminais once wrote a beggar a cheque at her front door
a message to mankind. I photographed him through the glass door of a
when she had no cash on her – an act of eccentric kindness, to say the least.
fridge that houses the frozen cast of his son’s head, sculpted from his own liquidised placenta. Quinn explores what it is to be human in the world
Her daughter Sascha now lives in New Zealand, where she settled after
today. He’s concerned with the essence of our physiological being: our
surviving a few armed robberies at work in her native Cape Town. In
bodily functions, identity, and our DNA.
this portrait, Gaby hugs Sascha in a protective way, but the mother and daughter are divided on the horizon by the grey sky meeting the rough sea, drawing a line of separation between them.
Marc Quinn, artist – 2004
Artist Gaby Cheminais and her daughter, Sascha – 1984
INVISABILITY (SIC) Talking about relationships, the lovely film director Jane Campion (she won an Oscar for The Power of the Dog) claimed that after the age of forty she felt that she had become invisible to men. She could have fooled me! She wrote ‘INVISABILITY’ on the palm of her hand and held it up, covering her face. However, she was charismatic, engaging, and easy to photograph, because she had imagined what I wanted.
Jane Campion, film director – 2004
NATASCHA McELHONE’S JOURNEY
PETITE AND POWERFUL
Despite her breathtaking beauty, actress Natascha McElhone is quite
I had seen Gillian Anderson play strong women, like the FBI agent
grounded as she jokes: “Yes, I went to drama school, but I also know how
Dana Scully in the X-Files. So when, in 2004, I met her at the Royal
to fix a leaky sink and survive a bad first date.”
Court Theatre in London, I was amazed at how tiny she was. Beautiful, with large bright eyes, she’s a brilliant actress who conveys a sense of
She says: “Never begin with results. They will appear as a logical outcome
intelligence and aplomb when portraying larger-than-life women such
of what has gone before. If you start off wanting the end result of
as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, Edwina Mountbatten, Blanche DuBois in
something, you lose sight of the journey, which is really the whole point of
A Streetcar Named Desire, Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, and – more
life and living. Enjoy the journey. And if something comes out of it, then all
recently – the BBC reporter Emily Maitlis in Netflix’s Scoop, a fictional
the better. But if it doesn’t, the journey’s the most important thing.”
dramatisation of the infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.
Natascha McElhone, actress – 2004
Gillian Anderson, actress – 2004
STARCK REALITY
HIGH TECH ARCHITECT
“I have only slept for four hours in the last 48, so I’m brain-dead,” announced
The British architect Lord Richard Rogers was known for “celebrating the
Philippe Starck when our team arrived at his Paris studio. “I don’t know why
components of the structure”, which is well illustrated in the Pompidou
you are here – my secretary told me, but I understand nothing.” Things had
Centre he designed together with the Italian architect Renzo Piano. When,
got lost in translation.
in the mid-1980s, I saw the building for the first time, I was amazed by its dramatic, high-tech design – its skeletal structure was on the outside, with
For an hour, the world’s most famous designer played, danced, sang
exposed tubular escalators and colourful ductwork. It looked like a giant
and performed Kung Fu tricks – spontaneous, funny, and always serious:
Meccano set – a brave new building that turned the rules inside out.
“Remember that life on earth started nearly four billion years ago at a time when we were bacteria. A little bit silly, even very silly. When we became fish, we lived in complete happiness. One day we had feet, and we became frogs. We climbed up to the land. We became the super frogs that we are today. We went to the moon. We’ll perhaps go to Mars. And this is unbelievably magnificent! This is pure poetry. We are mutants.” He asked me for a Polaroid (a small, instant print taken as a test before shooting on film) to give to his girlfriend. “Thank you Jac,” he said while shaking my hand vigorously, “You have helped my sentimental life.”
Philippe Starck, industrial designer – 2004
Richard Rogers, architect – 2004
SCANDAL
PLAYER
Marion Jones is widely regarded as the greatest female athlete of all
Gary Player is regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time. He was in
time. In 2000, she became the first woman to win five medals at a single
good shape when I met him on his stud farm in Kwazulu Natal. He slapped
Olympics – three golds and two bronzes. Sadly, in 2008, four years
his tight, flat stomach, declaring: “I do a thousand sit-ups a day, and I’m
after photographing her in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was sentenced
probably the fittest seventy-year-old in the country!”
to six months in prison for lying to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs. The International Olympic Committee also
After Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, he and Player became close
stripped Jones of her medals.
friends. When they met for the first time, Mandela told Player: “If I have hatred and non-forgiveness in my heart, I’ll be like an apple – green on the outside, but rotten on the inside.”
Marion Jones, sprinter – 2004
Gary Player, golfer – 2004
BEEFY
MIND OVER BODY
The cricketer Ian Botham could be the poster boy for tough English guys.
The Canadian Wayne Gretzky is a good-looking ‘guy next door’, with no
Nicknamed Beefy, he’s a real chap – a chap with a big heart. In 1997, while
outstanding physical features that make him the best ice hockey player of all
receiving treatment for a broken toe, he took a wrong turn into a hospital’s
time. He says: “I couldn’t beat people with my strength; I don’t have a hard
children’s ward where he learned that some children with cancer had only
shot; I’m not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to
weeks to live. He started doing fundraising work, including a 900-mile trek,
do most of the work.”
and has raised more than £12 million for charity.
Ian Botham, cricketer – 2004
Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player – 2004
QUITTING WHILE ON TOP
‘HULLE WEET NIE WAT ONS WEET NIE’
Timing is everything; also knowing when to quit. When I watch the Rolling
‘They don’t know what we know’ is the cryptic motto of Dricus du Plessis,
Stones acting like teens on stage, I feel embarrassed for their sake, and
the current UFC Middleweight Kickboxing Champion of the World. I asked
want to shout: “Stop and get off the stage while you can”. The World
Dricus to adopt a defining facial expression. He looked away, turned his head
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Lennox Lewis knew when to quit – with face,
back towards me, and, with a hint of malevolence, raised his eyes, but with a
senses and respect intact.
suggestion of a smile.
Lewis doesn’t fit the stereotypical boxer profile – he’s an excellent chess player, playing up to four times a day. He once told the celebrity talk show host Joe Rogan that he often plays the regular dudes at Washington Square Park, some of whom are masters. Anyone can challenge him online: his username is inter2000.
Lennox Lewis, boxer – 2004
Dricus du Plessis, kickboxer – 2024
THE NUMBER 11 SPOT
SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
In a 1995 World Cup match played at Newlands in Cape Town, I witnessed
Former Springbok forward Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee was the most revolutionary
the New Zealand rugby hero Jonah Lomu crush his English opponents. They
winemaker in South Africa. His love for chardonnay wine was such that,
fell like rags off the unstoppable Number 11 as he established himself that
while working in Burgundy in the early 1980’s, he started smuggling
day as the greatest wing ever to play the game.
forbidden chardonnay plant material to South Africa, hidden in his son’s nappies, concealed in the lining of a jacket or in any which way he could
I photographed him in Auckland nine years later, soon after a kidney
find. His arrest in 1986 had a happy outcome when his passionate testimony
transplant. He was a shadow of his former self, and looked vulnerable when
led to the lifting of the embargo.
he took off his shirt to show me the number 11 tattooed on his chest. He said: “You lose the forest from the trees if you concentrate on the grape He was a gentle giant … until provoked! He told us how, at age 15, he had
and ignore the terrain. The vine in the plant kingdom shows us the land’s
counterpunched his father after suffering years of abuse, in what sounded
actual worth. The grape is how the vine communicates the soil’s secrets.”
like a Once Were Warriors home life. Pink Floyd sang: When we left, there was a sense of melancholy in the air as he drove his
Remember when you were young?
black Jeep into the gloomy magenta twilight of Aotearoa – the Land of the
You shone like the sun
Long White Cloud.
Shine on, you crazy diamond …
Jonah Lomu, rugby player – 2004
Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee, winemaker – 1988
IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO?
DNA MAN
Something magical happened on 7 March 2004 when I photographed
While serving in Vietnam, the biotechnologist Craig Venter tried to commit
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in a hotel in Madrid. A gust of wind blew the
suicide by swimming out to sea, but changed his mind along the way. After
curtains sideways, causing the most beautiful soft sunlight to flood his face.
witnessing death and injury among comrades, he decided to study medicine,
Kasparov looked straight at me with confidence, and I knew I was taking a
and later turned to biomedical research. In 1990, he revolutionised biological
good portrait.
science by independently mapping out and sequencing human DNA, known as The Human Genome Project.
He started playing chess when he was five years old. He learned the moves from his mother, who told him he would one day be the World Chess
According to Venter: “The complexity of life in our society has a chance at
Champion. “If not you, then who?” she asked. Like a good Jewish boy, he
being helped by modern science. It gives us a chance just to understand
believed her.
where we fit into the continuum of life. We found that the variance in genetic code between any two humans is extremely small. This concept of race is
“There is no one who can share your responsibility,” he adds. “It is your
clearly a social construct. There is no scientific definition of race. It’s a social
responsibility, you must carry it and be responsible for your actions. At the
definition. There’s only one race, and it’s the human race.”
end of the day, we are all being challenged by our destiny. And it’s up to us to make all the difference in this life. If not you, then who?”
Garry Kasparov, chess player – 2004
Craig Venter, geneticist – 2004
WORLD CUP
KORTBROEK CHAMELEON
After the successful 1995 Rugby World Cup tournament in South Africa,
Marthinus van Schalkwyk is a professional politician who chopped
Leadership magazine commissioned the well-known anti-establishment
and changed his allegiance in the winds of change. An Apartheid-era
Afrikaans Sestiger author André P Brink to write a piece about our victory
intelligence operative, he succeeded F.W. de Klerk as leader of the National
and the role played by President Nelson Mandela, who, in a gesture of
Party, rebranded it unsuccessfully as the New National Party, and then
national unity, dressed himself in the Springbok rugby jersey with the
joined the ANC. He was given the nickname Kortbroek (short pants)
number 7 on its back, as worn by our winning captain, Francois Pienaar. For
because of his boyish looks. When I photographed him in 1995, I was
the studio portrait, we painted Brink’s face in the colours of the national flag,
surprised by the focal point of his office – a print of an English hunting
as proud fans do, leaving half his face recognisably exposed.
scene, hanging over the fireplace.
Alongside writers like Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux, André P Brink played a central role in the Sestigers (“Sixtyers”) movement — a group of Afrikaans writers in the 1960s who sought to revolutionize Afrikaans literature. They rejected the customary, nationalist usage of Afrikaans as the language of Apartheid ideology and used literature as a means of struggle against the cultural and political conservatism of South Africa during that era. As a member of the Sestigers, Brink provided Afrikaans a fresh and rebellious voice.
André P Brink, author – 1997
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, politician – 1997
WARRIOR FOR PEACE
DAMASCUS ROAD
On 22 March 2004, the Palestinian leader and a founder of Hamas, Ahmed
President F.W. de Klerk will mainly be remembered as the person who
Yassin, 67, was assassinated in Gaza City. When our team arrived at Ben
unbanned South Africa’s liberation movements, negotiating himself
Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv the following day, security was on high alert.
out of power in the process. This goes against the grain and instincts
Our producer told a security officer that the purpose of our visit was
of almost all politicians. A religious man, he called his transition a
to photograph the Israeli president, Shimon Peres. This provoked a lot
‘Damascus Road’ experience.
of suspicion – we were interrogated for hours, and our equipment was thoroughly searched. Peres was known as a warrior for peace, due largely to his understanding of the role imagination plays in life. He said: “People prefer remembering to imagining. Memory deals with familiar things; imagination deals with the unknown. Imagination can be frightening – it requires risking a departure from the familiar. We should use our imagination more than our memory.” He was also respected in Palestine – as a goodwill gesture, the Palestinian leader President Mahmoud Abbas attended his funeral in Jerusalem in 2016.
Shimon Peres, statesman – 2004
F.W. de Klerk, statesman – 2004
AS GOOD AS IT GETS It was a summer’s day in early 1995 when I photographed President Nelson Mandela in the cool, granite-clad courtyard of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. In the heat of the midday sun, a Highveld storm was brewing, ready to crack the saturated sky. The president arrived in the ‘revolution red’ Mercedes Benz that the East London factory workers had built for him, and greeted me in his familiar and disarming way: “Hello, how are you?”, as though he remembered me from a previous meeting. It was great to have had a leader you’re proud of – someone whose wisdom you trust, and whom you can consult in your imagination when you have a problem to resolve. You ask yourself: “How would Mandela deal with the situation?” That’s as good as it gets.
President Nelson Mandela & his daughter Zindzi – 1994
Nelson Mandela, statesman – 1995
THE QUEEN, THE VICE PRESIDENT AND I In 1947, the young Princess Elizabeth was photographed driving past the Board of Executors building in Cape Town. Forty-eight years later, in 1995, I was commissioned to repeat the picture. I was meant to photograph her – now Queen Elizabeth II – in her car after leaving a service in St George’s Cathedral, opposite the Board’s building at the top of Adderley Street. I managed to jog next to her car – security was surprisingly slack – and got my shot. Afterwards, I photographed then Vice-President Thabo Mbeki while he was chatting outside the cathedral for the cover of Leadership magazine. Two shots in one.
Thabo Mbeki, politician – 1995
Queen Elizabeth II – 1995
CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE I photographed Fezeka Kuzwayo, a.k.a. Kwezi, performing a one-woman play at the 2000 World Aids conference in Durban. She told me she had been infected with HIV/AIDS by a priest who had raped her. In 2005, she also laid a charge of rape against Deputy President Jacob Zuma. During the ensuing trial he said the sex was consensual, and added famously that he had taken a shower afterwards as protection against infection. Zuma was acquitted, while Kwezi had to flee the country. She died in exile in 2016.
Jacob Zuma, politician – 1999
Fezeka (Kwezi) Kuzwayo, AIDS activist – 2000
WHY IS THIS MAN LAUGHING?
MINISTER OF INTEGRITY
Is Cyril Ramaphosa laughing all the way to the bank? He seemed to have
in 2005, together with then Minister Derek Hanekom, I was delighted to
moved from trade unionist to billionaire in record time. Later, when he had
receive an honours medal from our old school, Jan van Riebeeck High –
become president, it was no laughing matter when he was claimed to have
mine for photography, and his for active politics.
covered up the theft of more than half a million dollars hidden in a sofa on his Limpopo game farm, Phala Phala.
During the politically turbulent 1980s, Hanekom was imprisoned for his anti-apartheid activism. His experience had not hardened him, but had made
I photographed the then businessman Ramaphosa in 2006 for a Mont Blanc
him even more dedicated to reconciliation and nation-building. Despite
Pen literacy initiative. He was charming, and told his secretary jokingly to
the political storms that raged around him, he remained a voice of reason,
watch us so that we could not pinch anything from his office. I asked him
promoting transparency and, most importantly, integrity.
whether he was planning to run for president, and his answer was typically noncommittal. He has always played his cards close to his chest, which I suppose will be his legacy.
Cyril Ramaphosa, politician – 2006
Derek Hanekom, politician – 1997
QUEEN AND NUCLEAR ACTIVIST, NIPPED AND TUCKED
THE HUMANE NUCLEAR DISARMER
I photographed Queen Noor of Jordan at the World Parks Congress in
The Republican US Senator Richard Luger was known as a humane
Durban in 2003. It focused on the preservation of protected areas worldwide,
conservative who campaigned against the policy of Apartheid in South
a subject close to her heart. She’s also a founding leader of the International
Africa as well as the use, production and stockpiling of nuclear, chemical
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel Peace
and biological weapons after the Cold War. Measured, principled, and
Prize in 2017, and is deeply involved in the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
more focused on policy than performance, he was the type of politician we rarely see today.
During our shoot, the self-assured Queen Noor confided to our stylist, Tanya Tyler, that her face and body had been nipped and tucked.
Queen Noor of Jordan – 2003
Richard Lugar, politician – 2004
THE MAN WHO SUFFERED MOST
A SMALL TREE
The chain-smoking Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng suffered enormously
The human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim is dressed in an old-fashioned
at the hands of the Chinese authorities, spending a total of 18 years
blazer and cravat when we meet in his small apartment on the Columbia
in prison for expressing his democratic beliefs. Imprisoned after the
University campus in New York. Following international pressure, he has
Tiananmen Square crackdown, he was kept in solitary confinement for
recently been released from an Egyptian jail where he spent three years in
years, unable to exercise or go outside. He was deprived of basic health
solitary confinement for his pro-democracy activities.
care while suffering depression and heart disease. He tells a moving story: “The only thing that I could see from my prison cell was When I photographed Wei in 2004, he spoke only Chinese, while I spoke
a tree that looked so big to me, and when I was released, I looked at it and it
none. But we managed, I’d like to believe, to communicate quite well.
was very small. But you know, in prison everything is distorted, so I used to look at that tree, and it was magnified in my imagination.”
Translated from Chinese, his message reads: “Many people are like that African animal called a chameleon. They adapt to the circumstances. This is
He reflects: “Peace and democracy are two sides of the same coin. In order to
a good tactic for surviving, but it’s bad for the course of the world.”
have peace in any region of the world, in any society, torn by civil strife, torn by hatred, you must have justice and democracy. My fight is for democracy, peace and development, because these three ensure human dignity for all.”
Wei Jingsheng, political activist – 2004
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, human rights activist – 2004
NATION BUILDER
FALLEN ICON
The South African journalist Aggrey Klaaste was slim in stature, but bold and
In the mid-1980s I photographed the Reverend Allan Boesak outside his
robust in his writing. He was a mensch and a voice of conscience in a time
house in Belville, Cape Town, which looked more like a fortress than a home.
when South Africa desperately needed one. What set Klaaste apart was his
Nattily dressed, with a thin tie and a white hankie in the top pocket of his
conviction that journalism had the power to inspire and change people in
tailored check jacket, the struggle icon also looked more like a CIA agent
addition to informing them.
than an ANC leader. As usual, he was brimming with self-confidence. But his self-deprecating humour, also delivered in his whiny preacher’s voice, was
Although harassed and imprisoned by the National Party government, he
infectious, and incongruous for someone with such a big ego.
launched his nation-building initiative in 1988, when he became editor of The Sowetan newspaper. Its aim was the upliftment of black communities that had
He became a sacrificial lamb when he gained too much power within the
suffered under Apartheid. Supported by business, the initiative recognised and
ANC. Sadly, the country lost a great leader when he went to prison. Boesak,
rewarded community builders who had helped to uplift thousands of people.
I’d like to believe, was not a calculating thief, but had rather mismanaged
After his death, his fellow journalist Thami Mazwai wrote: “This gentle, caring
some of the funds that he had received.
intellectual resolutely braved opposition from all sides to triumph in the end.”
Aggrey Klaaste, journalist – 1989
Allan Boesak, cleric and politician – 1987
THE BOYS FROM DELUXE Deluxe owners Carl Wessel and Judd Nicolay are the rock ‘n roll stars of coffee in the Cape. In 2009 they started roasting in a tiny shop, the size of a garage, in Church Street, Cape Town, and soon gathered a devoted following. They’re known to treat their loyal staff like family. Sometimes Carl wears a suit that looks as though he might have slept in it. And I’ve seen Judd delivering coffee to his clients in his Range Rover. These boys have style.
The boys from Deluxe, coffee merchants – 2012
THE GENTLEMEN’S FLOWER ARRANGING CLUB The talented Alwijn Burger, a.k.a. ‘Blomboy’, ran the Gentlemen’s Flower Arranging Club for chaps keen on honing their skills in floral art. According to Burger, “Nothing adds more panache to a gentleman’s appearance than a simple flower worn on the lapel”.
The Gelntlemen’s Flower Arranging Club – 2015
SAMPHIRE, SOUTSLAAI AND SLANGBESSIES Kobus van der Merwe is the antithesis of a ‘rock star chef’. He is humble
When we worked on our first book, Strandveldfood, a typical day in the life
and creative, and scoffs at the idea that his restaurant, Wolfgat, was voted
of a food shoot looked something like this: in the morning, Kobus would
the best in the world, adding: “It’s an absurd and meaningless title.” He runs
forage for edible plants, which I would photograph in their natural setting.
Wolfgat with a small footprint and uses only local foodstuff, while his staff,
Plants with wonderful names like samphire, soutslaai, and slangbessies
mainly women, have equal rank. The food they produce is sublime, thanks to
were transformed into delicious dishes that I photographed at Sonkwas, his
his headstrong individuality and a distinct tasting pallet.
parents’ home. In the late afternoon, his father would pour an obligatory dop, while Kobus played Bach on the piano. Kobus’ partner, Roelie, and his
My impression of Kobus is his sense of ease with which he effortlessly
mother, Sanita, joined us, and we feasted into the night. Less Eat Pray Love,
creates a unique cuisine reflecting his strong connection to the region, its
more Snap Crackle Pop!
people, and the location and its ingredients.
Kobus van der Merwe, chef – 2016
UPSTART GROWN INTO COOK AND STORYTELLER Rick Stein is a storyteller, and his is the story of fish, simply told with intellect
to continue: “What Keith did was bring food to men, and all I’ve done is to
and wit. He cooks fish effortlessly all over the world for his wholesome
carry on doing the same thing, so I owe him a great deal. But I think he got a
television programs. He got his first big break by appearing on one of Keith
bit pissed off. I guess I was the young upstart.”
Floyd’s TV shows, and refers to him as a mentor whose legacy he is proud
Rick Stein, chef – 2005
STORYTELLER OF FOOD Chef Reuben Riffel impresses with his humility and ease of engagement, characteristics he shares with fellow chef Kobus van der Merwe. They had a mentor in common, the talented chef Richard Carstens. Instead of celebrity chef, Reuben’s lack of egotism makes him more of a storyteller of food … in his mother tongue of Afrikaans, so to speak.
Chef Reuben Riffel and his grandmother Sarah in her kitchen in Franschhoek, Western Cape – 2011
WINNER Chef Luckson Mare of The Living Room in KwaZulu-Natal is one of a new generation of African chefs finding their voices on the global stage. He’s been crowned as the 2024 winner of the Pellegrino Young Chef Regional Final for the Africa, Middle East & South Asia region. He won with his signature dish that included the foraged indigenous Matungulu (Natal Coastal Plum). “I’ve taken the humble root and paired it with duck, which, to me, symbolises fine dining.” He adds that using the plum is a tribute to his mentor, Chef Johannes Richter, who profoundly shaped his approach to cooking. Luckson Mare, chef – 2024
IN FULL FLIGHT I photographed the celebrity chef Jan–Hendrik van der Westhuizen in a private jet during a flight to the Kalahari, where he was designing his restaurant KleinJAN. He’s flying high – his trajectory since winning a Michelin star for his restaurant JAN in Nice on the French Riviera has been nothing short of remarkable. The restaurant business is fuelled by drugs, sex and ambition, but no one I know matches Jan–Hendrik’s drive. From the Cape to the Kalahari, he’s left a focused footprint of brand innovation – his persona is the brand. Building an underground cellar in the middle of a desert is clever. Serving bobotie and biltong in France is clever. This guy is smart!
Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen, chef – 2018
MISTER COOL With his self-deprecating sense of humour, Vusi Ndlovu must be the coolest chef in Cape Town. I met him and his partner, Absie, in the autumn of 2024 at the globally recognised Wolfgat restaurant in Paternoster on the Cape West Coast, where they cooked with its owner, Kobus van der Merwe – the three of them a true triangle of talent. Wolfgat is a small restaurant with a big heart. Carling Black Label is introduced, and effortlessly complements dry West coast wines to celebrate the event. The menu –‘n spyskaart van plesier – reflects the local botany: crowberry and kelp; soutslaai and sea lettuce. From the cold Atlantic: abalone and oysters; limpets, mackerel and mussels; tjokka and bokkom. And then the classics: askoek, herebone and klipkombers – Kobus’ cooked oyster served on a pebble blanket. Vusi plays with fire - his robust rare beef rib eye with sweetbreads follows. Cries and whispers of deliciousness echo in the ancient Wolfgat cave below. Africa smiles. Vusi Ndlovu, chef – 2024
NOBU DREAMS OF SUSHI (WITH JALAPEÑO) Nobuyuki ‘Nobu’ Matsuhisa is one of the world’s most famous celebrity chefs. After a stint in Peru at the age of 24, he started a cross-cultural food experiment by blending Japanese techniques with Latin American flavours. He added jalapeño to yellowtail sashimi which became an instant culinary success. He says: “You know how kids dream of being soccer players or actors? Well, my dream was to be a sushi chef. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why.”
Nobu Matsuhisa, chef – 2010
DEDICATED TO SERVICE Sydney Moonsamy spent 35 years as a waiter at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town – a life dedicated to service. He was also the highly respected ‘tea master’ or ‘tea sommelier’ at the hotel where he created the signature blend for their famous tea, mixing Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling, Keemun, Kenya, Yunnan, and rose petals from the garden. The hotel’s High Tea was made famous by the Duchess of Bedford as a means of combating her late afternoon ‘sinking feeling’.
Sydney Moonsamy, waiter – 2012
DRESS WITH HUMOUR This is Stephanie wearing Vivienne Westwood at her most tigerish. Stephanie arrived in Cape Town for a short stay with a container full of clothes. One dress opened up to reveal a box of white doves. As the designer Louis Feraud once said, “To be truly chic, a woman must dress with a little humour.”– Lin Sampson
Stephanie Willshire, socialite – 1991
DAY FOR NIGHT Day for night is a cinema technique in terms of which a subject is correctly lit and the surroundings and background are underexposed and blue-filtered, which creates an impression of evening. I used this technique when I photographed Virginia Springett, who walks the streets of Sea Point plying her trade. She is in her seventies and, as a no holes-barred prostitute, lives from hand to mouth.
Virginia Springett, prostitute – 2017
HUIS KOMBUIS – THE FOOD OF AN ABSENT COMMUNITY In the early 1960s, I often accompanied my father to a fish market in an area of Cape Town known as District Six, located in the heart of the city below Table Mountain. It was a mixed-race neighbourhood, established about a hundred years earlier as a community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans and immigrants. On 11 February 1966, the white nationalist government of the day passed a law declaring District Six a whites-only area. The houses were subsequently bulldozed and the inhabitants were relocated 25 kilometres outside the city to a wind-swept, sandy scrubland known as the Cape Flats. Cape Town not only lost a vital chunk of its population and architecture, but also lost its soul. Today a few mosques and churches dot this wasteland where a spirited community once lived. According to ex-resident Ruth Jeftha, “District Six was all about food, we didn’t have much, but food brought us together. If you had kids to feed, you would go to your neighbour and ask for food.” Linda Fortune remembers the smells of District Six: “I used to walk up Hanover Street on my way home, and could identify what different people were cooking. I truly miss the food, the smells of District Six.” Huis Kombuis (Home Kitchen) is a term coined by a group of 22 former District Six residents who participate in a memory workshop program with team leader Tina Smith, curator of the District Six Museum. It’s a design project where storytelling, performance and traditional craftwork – including embroidery, sewing and appliqué – are used to document the area’s former culinary life. A few years ago, Tina invited me to work with her on a food book with the working title Huis Kombuis: The Food of District Six. It includes the testimonies of her group, their recipes and embroideries, as well as their portraits with an item that links them to District Six. It is a unique cookery book in the sense that it records and celebrates the food of an absent society. Huis Kombuis: The Food of District Six was published in late 2016. The portraits were also exhibited at the District Six Museum, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the notorious event when District Six was bulldozed.
MARION ABRAHAMS-WELSH “I remember my grandmother and my mother cooking right through the night. We had a huge, black cast-iron pot. In that pot, my grandmother cooked a small pig, a whole one, together with the turkey, the roast beef and the roast potatoes. Everything would go onto the table at lunchtime, along with the vegetables and the beetroot salad.”
Marion Abrahams-Welsh with her Spode plate – 2016
MOEGAMAT BENJAMIN
RUTH JEFTHA
“Despite leaving school in Standard Two, I wanted to achieve something
“We had a lovely kitchen. It was my weekend job to put wood or coal in
in life and my employment in different jobs gradually improved my life.
the stove. Sometimes we ran out of wood. We went to this furniture factory
During my childhood I participated in the klopse, played netball and
and came home with bags of wood for the fire. We cooked our best food
coached a women’s netball team. I was involved in starting an all-male drag
on that stove.”
queen netball team.”
Moegamat Benjamin with his klopse umbrella – 2016
Ruth Jefta and her family – 2016
MOLLY ABRAHAMS REMEMBERS HER FAMILY’S CRESCENT RESTAURANT
FATIMA FEBRUARY
“We had a special recipe for the different kinds of curry. We weighed
“Sunday wouldn’t be a Sunday without chicken and nowadays they have this
everything before it went into the pot. That was how we catered for our
masala chicken. In those days it was just pot braaied chicken. So ja, I looked
customers. We gave them the very best. My brother-in-law was very
forward to Sundays, you slaughtered your own chicken.”
particular like that.”
Aunt Molly Abrahams holding a decanter from the Crescent Restaurant – 2016
Fatima February with the street name sign where she lived – 2016
STEPHEN BURKS MAN MADE
BLUE SANCTITY
Stephen Burks is probably the world’s most exciting industrial designer.
I photographed the gentle-spirited ceramicist Marjorie Wallace wearing an
He has a democratic attitude to design in the sense that he believes the
indigo shirt at a Design Network Africa workshop in Accra, Ghana in 2016.
artisan’s input is just as important in creating the quality, look and feel of
Blue was her sacred colour. To me, her work has an African Zen quality due
the final product. An intrepid traveller, Burks has worked with hundreds
to the use of bold patterns and the colour blue. While she might not have
of artisans in many countries, especially in Africa, in the course of his
sought the spotlight, Marjorie Wallace has left a collection of work that, like
project titled ‘Stephen Burks Man Made’, bringing those cultures to bear
her own person, speaks with dignity and quiet strength.
on contemporary design. He explains: “I travel to make the invisibility of their cultures visible through my work – to build a bridge from their craft traditions into the future.” I met him in Accra, Ghana, while photographing a Design Network Africa workshop hosted by Trevyn and Julian McGowan. The subject of racial stereotypes came up in our conversation, and Burks quipped that an interviewer once referred to him as “the Barack Obama of design”.
Stephen Burks, furniture designer – 2012
Marjorie Wallace, ceramicist – 2012
THE POWER OF NATURAL LIGHT
TALKING TRASH
The subtleties of daylight streaming through a window is almost impossible
Heath Nash uses “other people’s rubbish” and makes it shine by ‘upcycling’
to replicate with artificial light – the rich colour, the moulding of the light on
and transforming it into beautiful lights that are sculptural and playful. In this
a face is just different. Rembrandt’s paintings are a testament to the power
portrait, taken during a Design Network Africa workshop in Accra, Ghana, he’s
of natural light.
clutching his leafball, a beautiful light, and his first commercially successful product which put him and his team on the international design map.
I used natural ‘north light’ for my portrait of the furniture designer and crafter Kweku Forson in Accra, Ghana. He has a timeless face that radiates contentment, confidence and sensitivity, seemingly reflecting everything that’s good about Africa.
Kweku Forson, furniture designer – 2012
Heath Nash, industrial designer – 2012
THE DANCER FROM DISTRICT SIX In 1950, before leaving for London to join the Sadler’s Wells School of Ballet,
And his success was phenomenal, for by the mid-1960s he had moved up
Johaar Mosaval had to perform a dance routine for two Imams to decide
the ranks to senior principal dancer, partnering such famous ballerinas as
if ballet was compatible with Islam. They were blown away by his flair, and
Margot Fonteyn and Svetlana Beriosova. He danced with Rudolf Nureyev,
gave him their blessings. Mosaval had been studying with Dulcie Howes
and worked with famous choreographers like Kenneth MacMillan and
at the UCT Ballet School where he had to stand at the back of the class,
John Cranko. Due to touring with the company, he gained international
separated from his fellow students because of Apartheid.
recognition as a brilliant character dancer with impeccable technique. Among others, he danced famously as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s
He went on to join the Royal Ballet Company, and in 1953 he danced a solo
Dream, Jasper in Pineapple Poll and the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty.
in Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. He describes the experience as the highlight of his life: “That night, the whole
I photographed Johaar in District Six, not far from where he grew up
opera house consisted of every king and queen in the world. It was the most
in a thriving community, long before the place was demolished into a
magnificent, spectacular audience ever, and dancing on stage you could see
wasteland of sorrow. However, at the age of 93, this sharp and beautiful
the flickering of the tiaras and the diamonds that were worn that night. I was
man shows only contentment as he recounts stories from his past, filled
floating on Cloud Nine.”
with miracle and wonder.
The words “You’re too tiny to succeed as a ballet dancer” were among the many challenges Johaar had to endure and surmount. Among with childhood poverty, racial discrimination and parental disapproval, this gave him the iron will he needed to succeed.
Johaar Mosaval, ballet dancer, photographed among the ruins of District Six – 2021
WELCOME TO MADAME TWO SWORDS AND THE GIRLS By the summer of 1978, most of Cape Town’s District Six had been bulldozed,
In the harsh summer light, with the pavement their catwalk, Madame Two
in the name of the racial ideology of Apartheid. A community had been
Swords and the Girls strutted their stuff in front of a crowd of cheering kids.
destroyed and a wasteland created that still serves as a stark reminder of the
Street theatre at its very best.
injustices of the past. They’d ripped out the heart, but somehow the spirit of the place remained – manifesting itself in the theatrics and defiance of a spontaneous drag queen show I was fortunate to witness.
Miranda Trefoil, Sandy Lentoor (a.k.a. Sandra Dee), Tamara Dobson and Olivia de Havilland (a.k.a. Madame Two Swords) – 1978
THE KEWPIE PROJECT Today, drag queens are freer to live out their fantasies than in the 1970s when, for example, Sandra Dee was arrested and imprisoned for ‘dressing up as a woman’. They’ve become more mainstream, but also less risqué. I worked with the artist Nina Milner who recently launched and curated the Kewpie Legacy Project, a vehicle for selling merchandise and portrait prints of drag queens, to benefit the District Six Museum.
Ina Propriette on the street where she lives in Rondebosch, Cape Town – 2021
Manila von Teez outside her house in Goodwood, Cape Town – 2021
THE MOST FAMOUS WHITE WOMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA
VULA
The author, satirist and social activist Pieter-Dirk Uys has helped South
In the mid-1980s, Vula magazine had a shoestring budget, but it was fun to
Africans to survive and change by exposing them to the ridiculous side
work for them, as one had complete creative freedom. I photographed the
of Apartheid. He has been called The Most Famous White Woman in
young, bright and gracious actress Terry Norton at the old power station in
South Africa. He is kind, friendly, and massively energetic. At 80, he is still
downtown Cape Town, lit with a single electric bulb. I recently colourised
dreaming up new ideas, and his alter ego, Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, is
the photograph in Photoshop. Terry went on to a great acting career on
still up and about like any Pretoria housewife, obsessively house-proud,
stage and in film, working with the late Irish novelist and playwright Edna
plastered with makeup, and entirely reliant on a fleet of maids.
O’Brien and actors like Michael Caine, Juliette Binoche and Forest Whitaker.
Pieter–Dirk Uys in his role as Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout – 2000
Terry Norton, actress – 1985
FASHIONISTA
FINE LINER
I photographed the fashion designer Lukhanyo Mdingi in 2016 for
In 2019, I photographed Marsi van de Heuvel in the vaults of the Zeitz
Wallpaper* City Guide Cape Town. He is inspired by the vibrance and
Museum in Cape Town for Wallpaper* City Guide Cape Town. She uses a
aesthetics of small South African towns, which has led him to source
fineliner to make marks on paper. She explains: “One stroke holds a brief
traditional fabrics and apply them in a modern manner. In 2019, Mdingi
moment of energy and intention.” The use of this meticulous technique
became an international player when he presented his first collection to an
gives her portraits, landscapes and abstract fields a depth and radiance
international audience at Men’s Fashion Week in New York.
which encapsulates the meditation and obsessive effort that went into creating them. In the presence of her work, I felt a similar sensory experience I had in the Rothko room of the Tate Gallery in London, a sense of connection to something bigger than myself.
Lukhanyo Mdingi, fashion designer – 2017
Marsi van de Heuvel, artist – 2019
IN MEMORY OF AIDA The suburb of Rugby, located between the N1 and the notorious Koeberg
Braam was really Aida’s romantic handyman. Because Aida took tea brewed
Road, is trendy Cape Town’s bleaker terrain – its zef side, as the rapper
from a pot (tea bags were strictly non-U), tradition dictated that Braam
Jack Parow would say – the unfashionable area that’s not earmarked for
would make her a tea strainer for every birthday. This tender detail is what
gentrification. Thank God!
made their liaison so special, so complementary.
After living in an old Railways cottage near the Cape Town harbour for a
Birrie le Roux, who works in the film industry, was a very close friend of
number of years, it makes sense that the late Aida Uys and her partner
Aida’s. She defines Aida’s spirit in a succinct and insightful way: “To live
Braam Theron chose Rugby to make their next home, for they never
in such an overstimulating environment, where you add new things to it
followed trends. They set them. To me, they were the most stylish couple
all the time, you have to have a place in your mind where there’s a quiet
the Cape has ever seen. Period.
calmness. I think Aida always had that. She was naturally serene. And she had a very strong sense of her own style and who she was – and I think that
Style is really undefinable and yet tangible, for it touches your senses. I can
Braam enhanced that. It was a combined thing because Aida and Braam
sense it, almost instinctively, when I meet someone with style. It’s not a big
had that perfect sense of style, with clothes, with food, with the way they
deal, it’s simply being aware as a photographer. It’s my job.
lived, the cars they drove, The way they did everything came naturally. They did everything in a considered way, and with care, long before everyone
I met Aida during the 1980s as she got off her black Triumph motorbike. She
was into good food and natural things. They were completely different to
was wearing an embroidered silk blouse under an old leather jacket, a man’s
anyone else that I’ve ever met.”
khaki trousers with turnups, Wupperthal boots, delicate gold jewellery and vintage leather gloves, and her hair was in a bun. On the back of the bike
Aida was once asked what her ideal living situation would be. Her answer
was a basket that Braam had made for her to carry Ysbeer, their cross wire-
was simple: “I want Braam to build me a room on top of the garage,
haired terrier, her travel companion wherever she rode.
furnished only with my piano, and a window with a view of the sea.”
Braam and Aida collected stuff, lots of it, tons of it. Their house was filled
Why do we live where we do?
with objects, some chosen for their usefulness, some for fun and some for
Because we do not seek safe havens
sheer folly. There were anglepoise lamps, model planes, coins, compasses,
And because of friends
masks, telescopes, bangles, tools, ropes, helmets, and many, many leather
Braam and Aida.
suitcases. And there were gems like a glove finger stretcher (honestly), a Aida died in 2012.
peach peeler, a boot button hook ... Braam rents out props to the film industry with a quirky inverted economy of scale, which he explains as follows: “The more you rent, the more you pay. If you want to rent one coffee flask you pay, say, R30, but if you want 40 flasks - which I have in stock – you pay R60 each, for the chance of you finding 40 of the same is very small, so you pay more.”
Aida Uys, friend – 2010
IN MEMORY OF A CLOSE FRIEND I used my iPhone to photograph my dear friend Phillicus Olivier in
and gentle man mentioned to my partner Tasha and me that the only life
Churchhaven in 2022. I had first met him in 1958 in standard 4 in primary
worth living was one of creative endeavour. Whether playing jazz on his
school. He was my friend for life, so to speak – loyal, caring and loving.
violin or cooking a four-course meal, he lived by his credo - his was a life of spirituality peppered with sustained hedonism. A life worth living.
A couple of days before his death in 2023, in our final conversation, this kind
Phillicus Olivier, friend – 2022
TASHA@50 My speech at my partner Tasha’s 50th birthday party on 4 February 2024:
She teaches me the difference between touching and feeling, between
“Yesterday I asked the AI app ChatGPT to write a speech for my girlfriend
hearing and listening, between looking and seeing ...
upon her 50th birthday, adding that she was vivacious, clever, funny, stylish, generous and joyful. In a flash, the app wrote back: ‘Ladies and
“For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know
gentlemen, esteemed guests, It is an honour … ‘ It went on and on in this
in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known. And now these three
formal language, one cliché after the other, so I decided to skip ChatGPT,
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
because all I really wanted to say is: Tasha brings a unique energy that feels like someone has just turned up the music. She sparks joy ...
Let’s drink to her health!”
My partner Tasha Tyler – 2007
Photograph by Luciano Pavarotti
Jac de Villiers with Jane Campion and Archbishop Desmond Tutu