It takes one astronomical unit—that’s 499 seconds or 8.317 minutes—for the light from the Sun to hit the Earth, for it to warm our skin and for it to trigger, within a landscape of sensitive folds, a congregation of 35 billion to delight. Golden rays transmogrify into golden hues, gold tones of the deepest, most…
Cape Town based analogue photographer Sandra Nagel has quickly gained attention within the coastal creative scene all while staying true to themes she holds close to her heart. Nagel’s work isn’t just about aesthetic. Her projects are meant to challenge you; meant to disrupt outdated schools of thought, thus in a way start conversations without…
Born and raised in Ghana, photographer Nana Yaw Oduro started practising photography as a personal passion. His photography is dripping with a strong mood deriving from an expression of ideas and feelings through distinctive and stylistic use of colour. He explains to me: “The idea usually comes from emotions and poetry. Very Personal. Then the…
As the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse becomes more apparent, cultural producers are forced to confront a terrifying present. Many retreat towards the pessimistic comfort of apocalyptic visions. But others are focused on bearing witness to the present, with the desperate hope of building a liveable future. The searingly powerful new book and…
#BlackDragMagic is a collaborative project by drag artist and activist Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie and photographer Lee-Ann Olwage. This project tells the stories of black queer, gender nonconforming and trans people who were born and raised in the townships of Cape Town. “I met Belinda while working on another body of work titled The Queens of…
Photographer, Tatenda Chidora embraces form through the figure. Limbs and bodies expound into shape, line and colour. Chidora has not always embraced colour, his earlier work was peppered with the simplicity and minimalism of the monochrome palette. With his later work, we are confronted with the same principles of clarity and lucidity that has carried…
I want people to enjoy making art and be authentic about it – your vision, eye and story is unique to you and no one else can tell it like you but you – allow your art to speak and embrace the process! Christopher Michael from Dallas, Texas, becomes an aesthetics designer with his lens….
Stephanie Blomkamp is a self-taught photographer born in Johannesburg, currently based in Cape Town. She spent the greater part of her childhood in Canada later moving to Europe. She describes her passion for the medium in stating that it is all she’s ever wanted to do, referring to it as “innate”. Learning to use the…
Our bodies remember what our minds have chosen to forget. The heavy burden of trauma brought on by Apartheid sits in our gut. Healing is imperative and a rebirth is necessary. Tshepiso Mabula ka Ndongeni offers us an avenue for remembering (and potential healing) with her series of photographs; Ukugrumba, an isiXhosa word meaning “to…
Johannesburg born photographer Sydelle Willow Smith’s practice is informed by a personal search for identity guiding what her lens captures. The documentarian’s roots trace back to Lithuania. A graduate of Social Anthropology, this social scientific view informs the stories that she depicts guiding her viewer to more universal truths. Sydelle is also a winner of…
Gina van der Ploeg is a Cape Town based photographer who doesn’t just enjoy a pristine landscape, she enjoys recording it too. “My photographs become a kind of panoramic list of places I’ve been to and expanses I’ve looked upon”, she tells DEAD TOWN. Her lens is drawn to soft surfaces, to flowers, grass, clouds…
Multidisciplinarian Luke Abby works within the realms of photography, sculpture and costume design. His first solo exhibition, Characters, acted as a display of eighteen portraits of people he had met while traveling. On Characters, he tells TWELV, “Characters was a mix mash of some of my favorite photos I had taken over the years leading…
