Tag: film photography

New Zealand based jewellery brand 27Mollys release their second collection – Love and Basketball

The New Zealand based jewellery brand 27Mollys has released their second collection titled, Love and Basketball. The collection consists of handmade pieces in silver featuring a mix of pendants, chains, rings and earrings. As all pieces in the collection are handmade, no two pieces are identical. The unisex collection takes its inspiration from 90s basketball culture, bling-bling and flowers.

The designer and founder of 27Mollys, Brent Paye teamed up with Capetonian photographer Jabu Nadia Newman to photograph the new jewellery collection. Her approach to photographing the collection was rooted in a desire to have fun with the project combined with definitive aesthetic choices. These ranged from photographing in direct sunlight, using contrasting colours as well as favouring a rich saturated feel. In order to elevate the aforementioned qualities, Jabu photographed the collection on 35mm film.

Christina Fortune has the 90s kid look down to a T in this selection of images and was a natural choice of model for Jabu who regards her as a muse. “I love shooting my friends and shooting with the same model over a period of time because I’m so inspired by their personality and look.”

Makeup artist Naledi Mariri was influenced to do a very clean look for the shoot to highlight Christina’s perfect skin and stunning freckles. Her choice was then to add a fun quirk for the eyes resulting in a magnetic look that draws the viewer in.

The collection was photographed at petrol stations in Observatory, Woodstock and Rondebosch complementing the concept for the collection as well as the look and feel of the shoot. Styling for the shoot helped bring the shoot and collection full circle, taking on hip-hop elements and basketball influence with a soft colourful side.

To get in on the bling-bling and basketball inspired collection, shop 27Mollys here.

Credits:

Photography: Jabu Nadia Newman
Jewelry Design & Styling: Brent Paye / 27Mollys
Model: Christina Fortune rep. Fantastic Agency
Makeup: Naledi Mariri

17 May 2018
BOY: A transmasculine narrative in SA

My name is Wes Leal and I am a 19-year-old boy who was gendered female at birth.

Although I was too young to properly grasp the concept of ‘gender’ when I began realising that something was wrong, I definitely knew that I wasn’t a girl. For years I kept it to myself, hoping that it would go away but it never did.

In 2015 I came out to my girlfriend Boni and ever since then we’ve been in it together.

I didn’t come out to anyone else until this year, marking the beginning of my transition.

I have been contemplating going on Testosterone for about three years but as quickly as those thoughts would come, they were pushed away. It wasn’t until Kalo‘K-$’ Canterbury had an Instagram Live talking about his own transition that something inside of me clicked. That was a very important moment for me. All the trans boys that I knew about were distant social media presences, and I had rarely ever heard someone talk about what I was feeling.Watching that Live made me wonder why I was still trying to deny something so evident.

So on that exact night I made the decision to assert my identity more and make steps towards beginning my own social and medical transition.

Kalo’s openness about his own transition inspired me to be open about my journey because I thought it would be really cool if I could make something to help other dudes as much as he helped me.

So Boni and I decided to begin documenting my life through film photography. She managed to capture so many different stages and feelings leading up to one of the most important appointments of my life, all while presenting me as I would like to be seen by the world. Working with someone who understands my complex relationship with my body has helped me say a final goodbye to this body that I find myself in at this time.

My social transition started with coming out to my younger sister. I had previously blocked her from my Instagram stories as did Boni, and essentially, I had begun leading a double life. Eventually the misgendering became too much and I told her, and to my surprise she took it very well which gave me the confidence to come out on Instagram and be more assertive about my pronouns.

Soon after this, with the help of Kalo, I changed my name to Wes (which I’m still getting used to) and expected that everyone around me would see me for the boy that I am. But for some reason people who didn’t even know me before I came out were having a hard time seeing and understanding that I am a boy.

The frustration I felt in times like those drew my eye to images of blue and pink buildings, firstly, because the colours pink and blue are highly gendered, and secondly, because I began thinking about the barriers that walls create – what they keep in, and what they keep out. I immediately connected with this pink building in Rondebosch and began to think that the world sees me similarly in a lot of ways. The people who misgender me only see me as a pink barrier that can’t let masculinity in. No matter how much I present like a cis-man all they see is a pink wall.

Despite all the pain and discomfort, I’m looking forward to this new journey. On Friday, March 16, 2018 I have my first appointment with a psychiatrist who works with transgender patients and I will explore my options regarding my medical transition. I’m nervous, yet relieved, and I’m grateful for the people who have come into my life along the way and given me the support and love I need to see this through.

I want to say a special thank you to the dude K-$ whose presence has had the most impact during this stage of my life. Thank you for speaking on your truth so I could do the same.

See you on the other side,

WES LEAL

Illustrations by Wes Leal

16 March 2018
‘Boys’ by Jemma Rose

Jemma Rose is an 18-year-old photographer based in Johannesburg. I met up with Jemma about two weeks ago to photograph her for a series I am currently working on. The session took on the tone of a social visit and we chatted about a variety of topics ranging from boys, girls, high school and our individual practices. It slowly took on an interview tone and we discussed her latest body of work, Boys.

Still being in high school, Jemma does not have formal training but her eagerness to learn urged her to ask photographers she knew questions about photography. In addition to this she attended free workshops and lectures that helped her groom her photographic eye and technique.

When asked about analogue vs. digital she responds, “I can hear the hipster mob outside right now, screaming ‘film is not dead!’ Like, yeah man, it never was, chill.” Jemma tells me that she started playing around with film a number of years ago just for fun but more recently she is making an active decision to work in the format as it pushes her to be a better photographer.

I do agree with Jemma on this matter as I have in recent months also started working more and more with my trusty Canon film camera. The mayor challenge therein lies for photographers who started creating images digitally, is that there is no LCD display (liquid crystal display) in the analogue format, meaning that you literally do not know what you are getting when you photograph. This forces you to know your film camera better than any other form of equipment you will ever own.

Knowing exposure combinations and understanding lighting conditions as well as how your ISO, shutter speed and aperture play together is crucial. So yes Jemma, analogue does push you to be a better photographer. In addition to this, the fact that you only have 36 frames means that you need to take more calculated shots.

Jemma’s recent body of work is a series titled simply as Boys. The series is a collection of photographs taken of young males dressed in feminine underwear and attire all photographed in black and white. Jemma tells me that this project is an exploration into the destructive nature of the way in which hypermasculinity is idealized, as well as the importance of gender expression and identification in an individual.

Explaining the process that was followed to create this body of work, Jemma states that she asked some of her friends who identified as males to model for her. On the shoot day she showed each one of them a collection of her grandmother’s old lingerie and they were asked to select pieces from the collection that they liked. They were permitted to choose their own accessories if they wanted such as fur, pearls and glitter. “As they put the items on, I tried to photograph their emotional reactions – I wanted to capture how their gender expression changed in the presence of hyper-feminine clothing.”

Jemma expresses that this project is extremely personal for her, “Growing up in South African society, in which a strict gender binary is still very much embedded in our collective consciousness, I found it difficult to explore my sexuality and gender fluidity.” As she grew older, however, she started questioning the reasons behind why people are still stuck in out-dated gender roles, and why it’s difficult to break away from them.

Her aim with this series was to subvert commonly held ideas surrounding masculinity and gender expression as the models’ emotional reactions were captured. “Some of them were clearly uncomfortable wearing hyper-feminine clothing, while others seemed more fluid, and more powerful.” Jemma explains that the most important aspect of the process lay in the different emotional reactions of the models and form a part of their gender expression.

When asked why she opted to photograph this series in black and white, Jemma explains that for her, black and white represents the gender binary. “In the images, instead of just pure white and black, the viewer can see so many shades of grey, and this is a metaphor for the spectrum of genders and sexualities that actually exist within people.”

Boys, Jemma’s ongoing body of work is an example of a series that has achieved what she as an artist was striving for. It shares with its viewer in striking black and white and grey tonal range imagery a very real, non-constructed intimacy. Jemma’s Boys asks questions about normal conceptions of what it means to be male today and is all together a powerful body of work. Many photographers have approached this subject before but I believe what makes Jemma’s Boys stand out and have it’s own voice is the meaning behind her black and white images and the authenticity of the emotions that she was able to capture in this series. Boys will be on display at the Joburg Fringe, an independent annual art fair from the 6^th to the 10^th of September at 24 Victoria Road corner Viljoen, Lorentzville.

6 September 2017
Adriaan Louw: mirroring moods through film

“I love the world film creates without trying too hard”

This statement by photographer and filmmaker Adriaan Louw explains his expansion into film. Over the years he has documented different genres and artistic forms, from art to skateboarding to fashion, with youth culture being the thread that ties these various endeavours together. “Everything I’ve done […] I just want to make bigger and better… If that means in a commercial realm, that’s cool too. As long as it grows the culture.”

When asked about his relationship with analog productions, he mentioned watching skateboarding videos in school. “Back then everything was shot on tape and 8mm or 16mm film cameras. So to me that is the base of my aesthetic education. It feels like my default in a way.” With a desire to do more productions on film, he is hoping he can see and capture youth culture through the beautiful, grainy textured world that film engenders.

Expanding on his desire to make more projects in film and reflecting on the renaissance of film, Adriaan explains that, “In South Africa it’s really hard to try and make it happen on every project. You have to order the film to SA and ship it back half way around the world to get developed and scanned again, but so far it’s been successful. Film is making a big comeback in the world at the moment, especially motion film. I would like to be part of that global movement. Shooting on film creates a certain mood on set that I really enjoy.” Riky Rick was jointly able to see the aesthetic value of film, resulting in the recently released video for “Family” being shot on 8mm film. The use of film creates a nostalgic feeling, with the video visually mirroring old home videos, making a connection to the words in the track.

Photograph by Ross Maxwell

Thinking about his conversations with Ricky about the video, Adriaan explains that, “We wanted it to feel underground in a way. If you look at my work up until now in the Hip Hop scene it never has fancy cars, half naked woman and other things like that in it. I’d like to keep it that way. I think visually creating a mood for an artist is way cooler than trying to make them look rich. So with this video I decided to shoot most of it on film to create a timeless feel. If you look at some of the city shots of Johannesburg in the video you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was shot in the ’80s or 2017. It was so magical seeing the rushes when it got back home. It really felt like images you would Google search of past Johannesburg. The film also added a bit of grittiness to the video that I wanted to add to the song. I feel like the video has a rock n roll approach to it visually.”

Photography by Adriaan Louw

Adriaan has also recently joined the production company, Word. This speaks to larger shifts within South Africa’s film and TV commercial industry. “I think up until now I didn’t feel the need to do bigger productions and take on the TV commercials world. Til now I always thought of it being something I didn’t want to do in filmmaking, but these days people are really pushing boundaries with TVCs and I think perhaps my style is now suited for that world,” Adriaan explains. This change in the formula for filmmaking in advertising is encouraging for filmmakers like Adriaan. “I think there is a new generation of filmmakers who will bring this change and want to create content that is emotionally- and story-driven. The world of online content and traditional advertising media is starting to merge together.” Never forgetting his first love, documentary-style content, Adriaan is open to trying new things in filmmaking.

Photograph by Ross Maxwell

Check out the “Family” video below for a taste of Adriaan’s new direction.

Credits:

Director: Adriaan Louw
Production: The Swank Group
Second Camera: Ross Maxwell
DOP: Adriaan Louw
Editor: Adriaan Louw
Fixer: Tito Balata

10 July 2017
‘I still love you when I’m dreaming’ – a photographic series by Katya Abedian

Katya Abedian first came to my attention after Rookie Magazine published her work earlier this year. The 18-year-old artist blew me away with her 35mm film imagery that plunged me deep into her dream world. I spoke to her about her new series I still love you when I’m dreaming.

Abedian was born and raised in South Africa and is a self-taught photographer and film director. She grew up encircled by people of diverse backgrounds, cultures and religions. Katya believes that growing up in South Africa has shaped her sensitivity and awareness as an artist.

I still love you when I’m dreaming is a story in which Kim (Kimberley Davidson) and Casey’s (Casey Redlinghys) personalities become characters. Kim is depicted as both strong and gentle, and Casey is shown with warmth and vulnerability in his eyes. The models for this series convey reciprocal and harmonizing feminine and masculine attributes, lying at the heart of Katya’s story.

“I aimed to explore the mutuality of the genders through these images and convey that human emotions are not limited by gender. Both have an equal capacity to feel a spectrum of emotion and both have an equal capacity to support one another in unique and beautiful ways.”

For Abedian dreaming is one of the most alluring planes of worldly existence. She is in awe of this wonderland and how we are able to exist in one world and another simultaneously. “There is so much to discover concerning the relationship between our subconscious and our conscious realities, both spiritually and scientifically.” Her title for this series touches on these feelings and how people’s spiritual characters are a continuum of this when our eyes are open and closed.

Relying completely on natural lighting in her projects, this series was shot in low light which led Abedian to use a very slow shutter speed and high aperture. She was aware that the result would be a blurry-dream, but as analogue imagery can’t be reviewed while it is being photographed, she was not able to predict to what extent that decision would present itself.

“I think there is a quality of out-of-focus imagery that give space for interpretation and imagination. I aimed to create imagery with this story that opens the space between what you are seeing and how it is making you feel. That space is a beautiful one because it surfaces different interpretations and invokes a spectrum of feelings in the human imagination.”

The veil depicted in Abedian’s series is representative of the thin membrane between being awake and dreaming. In her series tulips are featured as well as other flowers styled on Casey’s face. According to Abedian flowers are symbolic in her work in the way that they are a representative of the contrast of fragility and suppleness, faultlessness and the inevitability of death giving birth to life.

“As far as I can remember, art and expression was something I turned to when nothing else really made sense. There had to be more… a world in which the depth of my feelings could find home in. Film photography was the first way I could physically get to that world, by training my eye and entering the world of analogue light capturing.”

Katya was drawn to 35mm film as she feels that digital photography never pushed her to refine her eye or enable her to capture images in a way that was different from the norm. “35mm film has a truthfulness to it. The beautiful thing about film is that it is both irreplaceable and unpredictable. That combination starts becoming ‘art’ to me.”

Her first camera was an age-old, Russian Zenit received as a gift from a friend. The light meter was broken and Abedian tells me that it aided her in training her eye from the beginning of her photographic experimentation. She would later discover that the Zenit was a film prop and was not meant to be in working condition.

Abedian reflects on her early work and says that she still remembers her excitement when her parents came home with her printed stills. “I think that feeling nurtured my love of analogue film photography as apposed to digital work.”

Her excitement by colors and how they act together comes through in her photographs. She switches between working in soft pastels to shooting very saturated colors, and brings in black and white sporadically. “I’m not prescriptive and I definitely try not to limit or control the channel of creativity when it comes to a story I am shooting. If it captures my heart then I will shoot it just like that.”

Abedian styles her own shoots and photographs either friends, people that she finds genuinely interesting or people that she can relate to on a human or artistic level. She locates her shoots in spaces that enrich her stories and identifies as a sentimentalist. This is evident in her photographic style.

“Artwork, of any form, has the power to start a conversation… to connect with the facets of the human condition that we have in common: our hearts, emotions, experiences. I can only hope that my work acts as a catalyst for progress because that is always my intention… whether that is explicit or understood is secondary.”

Assistant: Ruby Glass

Facial Art: Jessica Grammer

13 June 2017
Images for the words you cannot find: An interview with photographer Kelly Makropoulos

I got to know photographer Kelly Makropoulos in an interview about her creative process and what she is working on at the moment.

Tell our readers about how you got into photography.

When I was twelve years old, my family and I visited Lake Kariba, the world’s largest human-made lake along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. I remember seeing the dead trees that pierced through the water as we travelled on the dam; it was as though we were venturing across a desert of water. I was enthralled by the scene, so borrowing my mother’s camera, I aimed the lens to the trees and the glistening water and filled the 100-odd megabyte card to the brim.

What are the kinds of themes you like to work with?

One theme I like to support is feminism: so uplifting and respecting feminine energy. I did a series allied with Free the Nipple, where I was taking images of female friends topless in public spaces with expressions and postures that were either untroubled or defiant. It’s the reality we live in that says femininity and power cannot go hand in hand, so I want to draw attention to the fact that it most certainly can.

Tell our readers about your creative process.

I like to focus on simplicity in my work, so the content in the image has one bold element with accompanying features and textures. I’m inspired by powerful feminine energies like Lady Skollie who push the envelope on feminine sexuality, removing the taboo. Tony Gum turns the camera on herself, and I think that’s exciting. Photographic self-portraiture is thrilling because you can embody your vision completely. I create by doing. Meaning I work with the tools I have at my disposal, allowing for the subject and I to have a conversation, as well as drawing on the many varying elements of any particular shoot.

What are some of the projects you have been a part of?

I’m currently part of ongoing collaborative project with Ben Moyo called ‘The Kenjis’. Ben is a Zimbabwean born photographer and stylist, who is also known as The Chocolate Brother. Starting off with merely an iPhone, his work reflects a passion rarely seen. He uses his work to create digital content for various clients. Having recently made the leap from Cape Town to Johannesburg, Ben is falling in love again with the booming street-style photography in the area.Having been big fans of each other’s work, it seemed natural to collaborate intimately on a joint project. Thus, The Kenjis was born. We’d like to see our work as a storytelling experience. As we both style and creatively direct our shoots, the mixture becomes a new vision which is a part of us, as well as a third party in a way. We’d like to get more into creating non-gendered shoots, as we did with our first shoot that can be seen on our Instagram. We feel it’s highly important to break destroy stereotypes that society chains us to. For now, we are working on our individual projects as Ben is in Johannesburg and I am in Cape Town. I have also worked on other collaborative projects with a few other artists.

Is there a particular aesthetic you are inspired by or try to create in your images?

My aesthetic changes from project to project. I try to achieve varying aesthetics. When I find myself becoming satiated, I move onto the next. I wouldn’t say my style is in any sort of box. Different aesthetics I’ve worked on would be bright colored images, particularly the combination of warm and cool tones I adore. I also love capturing shadows on skin as I feel it’s quite dramatic. Black and white photography I’m also into at times when that mellow mood strikes me.

What is the vision you have for yourself as a photographer?

I’m not entirely sure what my vision is – I don’t even know what I’m up to in the next two weeks, but I know I’m buying more film.

What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you this year?

I’m working towards another solo exhibition, as well as a few group shows. My upcoming solo exhibition has not had a date or venue set for it as of yet, but I’m working towards making it completely film-based and further moving away from the gender binary construct.

I’m planning on travelling to Europe for their summer, and working with some artists there. I also plan to take more film photos, as it makes me prudent of what I shoot; it pushes me to wait for the right moment.

Anything else you would like to mention about you or your work?

I identify as gender queer. It’s an undercurrent in my actions, including photography. From my eyes my images show a deep mix between feminine and masculine characteristics. Although I still lean towards the divinity of femininity.

I’ve never been any good at putting my emotions into words. This used to make me quite uncomfortable, until a close friend of mine told me they thought in emotions and images, rather than in words. Since then I’ve tried to achieve this sentiment with my photography.

Check out more of Kelly’s work on Instagram.

28 March 2017
Photographer Carl David Jones on the art of image making

I had a conversation with photography magician Carl David Jones about his journey as a photographer and what he has planned for his work this year.

Having planted the seed for his passion in photography during his time in university, Carl went to Seoul to teach English after confessing that his degree in engineering did not excite him much. While in Seoul he started the street style blog, SOL-SOL Street, and this is when the vision of himself as a professional photographer began to take shape. When he started the blog in 2013, Seoul was still a relatively new city for him. Walking through the streets Carl was fascinated by the how well people dressed, and started photographing people every day. “As I travelled to Hong Kong or South Africa I would take my camera with me, asking people wherever I was if I could photograph them. It first started as Korean street style but now it’s wherever I have been,” Carl explained. He met up with a well-known Korean photographer and worked as his apprentice for about a year before spreading his own wings.

Carl’s most recent obsession over the last few months has been experimenting with 35mm film, with the aim of grooming himself into a film photographer. When discussing where this new obsession came from Carl explained that he prefers the head space he has to be in while working with film. “I just felt like people weren’t making images anymore. They were just clicking away and burning through those digital images and not really concentrating on making a picture. With film, you can’t see what you are getting. It’s very limiting. You have to concentrate and get into the zone of making the picture,” Carl explained. His new love for film ties into the low-fi, gritty feel he creates in his images. “I like taking an image for what it is and a location for what it is,” he explained.

Another new adventure of his is creating 3D gifs using a film camera from the 80s, which he received as a gift from his roommate in Seoul. “The camera has four lenses, so it takes one photo from 4 perspectives. When you get the film developed, you make the gif,” Carl explained. He has incorporated this into the shoots where he works with film. “The 3D gifs can give another perspective to the story,” Carl explained.

At the end of this month Carl will be travelling to Bali and then Hong Kong where he will be meeting up with people for a small project he is working on. The results of the project should be dropping in May. He is also planning on taking SOL-SOL Street in a new direction this year. Keep an eye out for these new developments. Carl is currently not represented in SA.

You can check out more of his work on his website.

21 March 2017