A Velvet Yellow

It's Christmas In South Africa

We have the Christmas trees

with the Christmas balls and the Christmas shopping

we have the Christmas decorations

spread all over town

and this year we got even an Octopuss.

We are having it !

Nothing But A Fisherman's Dog

There is one topic in South Africa that is hard to avoid.

The fishermen, the fishermen's fish and their dogs

No, he is not hurt, just dirty

The fishermen and their dogs are a secret society

And usually there is more than one of them

There is a very fine thin cord woven between the fisherman and his dog

And it extends further out to the sea

So, the fish is hooked to the fisherman ( even if it i still swimming happily in the ocean) 

and the fisherman is hooked to the dog

so the dog is also hooked to the fish

The fish feels the fisherman and a little bit the dog,

the dog feels the fisherman and the fish,

the fisherman feels all three of  them !

Symbolically spoken

Don't know if you understand

This is a complicated matter

not easy to explain

But go and see for yourself

Old Love

Available at Chocolat Negro Recycled Design and Art.

Old Lorenco Marques - The City Of Acacias

Then Called Polana Beach, Maputo, Mozambique

Something new and a little bit of old every day of your life. Seems like a good philosophy to me.

In this picture a view of Polana Beach in Maputo in the 1950's, also known as Lourenco Marques, capital of Mozambique.

Maputo is known as the City of Acacias in reference to the many acacia trees commonly found along its avenues. Another name given to it is the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its municipal building.

In this picture we see a partial view of Lourenco Marques commercial zone in the 1950's

Old Lourenco Marques - because it does really not look as sleepy as this anymore. Today it is a port city on the Indian ocean with its economy centered around the harbour and an estimated 9 % annual growth rate. 

Close to 1 800.000 million people live in Maputo. It is estimated that 80% of the city's population lives in slums without running water or electricity but the city has little money to invest in infrastructure.

Inequality in Maputo has grown considerably.

Emma - Waiting For Her Lover

I have done a series called " Emma" in 2010.  Emma is an antique German bisque half doll with genuine human hair and a delicately hand painted face. I have used her for several photographic installations. Emma looks so real and alive once photographed that it is nearly a little but scary. It is as if the photo breathes life into her.

Swakopmund - Fishing From The Old Jetty

These old color prints show us what Swakopmund looked like in the 1950's before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt made this town famous by awaiting the birth to their child there in a seaside resort close by. Swakopmund was just a sleepy, very misty little village situated at the rough Atlantic coast of Namibia, then still called SWA - South West Africa. The old jetty was the place to be for fishing, and probably still is. At the time the wooden boards had holes and at a later stage it was even difficult to get to the end of the jetty.

A bird's eye view of the town with the vast Namib desert in the background. Then and now one of the most fascinating places in the world.

Today the town has changed completely. It has grown enormously and has become a tourist haven. I have spent many holidays there but I found it difficult to recognise the old streets.

Butterfly Leaf

A Tale Of Pure Perfection

This tale speaks in pictures

The feathers and the eyes

tell you a story of pure perfection

and divine grace

This tale makes you see

The Spirit of the Sky

Stranded

A white painted deck was beached at Nahoon after the heavy rains in July.
One of many.

All shattered and ship-wrecked, beautiful in its ravaged appearance.

I immediately saw that this would make a perfect setting for a fashion photo shoot. It does not come better.

But guess what?  

South Africa being a country where nothing is left unused and everything is recycled the one way or another, the next day when I came back with a model it was basically stripped down and only some planks and the tires were left.

Pity ! My loss !
But somebody's gain.
May be, these planks help now keeping a ceiling up.

Capetonians On Picnic

This scene, eternalised on black and white film, dates back to 1965. I praise the unknown photographer.

It is entitled :

" On an early summer day in December, white South Africans picnic and converse in a grove of large fir trees in a Cape Town suburb."

Living proof that the culture of gathering around your cars, braaing, talking and drinking, equipped to the teeth with useful and unnecessary gadgets, has transcended all groups and races in South Africa. Not much different than Gugulethu or Bucaneers. Ok a little smaller ! And today the gentlemen don't wear ties to this occasion. But the hats remain part of the scenery.

If you do it, do it in style.

A Family Of Four

Which location you consider to be safe and convenient to set up home and raise your children depends entirely on the perception of the parents.

This shelf in front of my workshop was choosen as the ideal nesting place by a young Cape Robin couple. They made their home in between the retro lampshade, the wooden jaguar scluptures, the glass jar with paintbrushes and an oil painting.

And no, I can not explain  to you why these things are there and no, they are not in a specific order. I just noticed the complexity of the scenario myself when I took the pictures. But this is what happens in an artists life. If  I use them ? I will. Soon. Now that I have seen them again.

Food is close by

Very close

and in abundance

The inside of the nest has been upholstered with feathers that my chicken have lost. It looks a bit messy like any young couple's home but it could not be more comfortable.

And no doubt life has changed forever. Especially for him. Having children is not a bit as you imagined it. Rather hard work with two mouths to feed.

What Do You Do For A Living ?

Or What Do You Have To Do To Live ?

There are millions of people in South Africa. women and men, who have made it their living to dig through other people's trash and waste that is deposited in black bags outside on the street for collection. 

It is the same scenario on each and every day in South Africa. In every city and in each suburb, affluent or poor, depending on the week day when the trash is collected.

As early as five or six o'clock in the morning, before the trucks come, people start searching the trash for plastic bottles and material that can be recycled and for things that can be kept for private use. The list of things that can be re-used for private comsumption is long ranging from old garden chairs, left over food and half smoked cigarettes to card board boxes. Nothing is excluded.

South Africa is just beginning to make a small step into the direction of an " organized waste separation and waste managemnt system ". Private Recycling companies buy the empty bottles and plastic trash that are collected by the people who search the waste. 

The money derived from this activity is often their only income.

The gap in South-Africa between the rich and the poor has become deeper during the last decade.

And this is a way not to steel or starve.

What many South Africans have to do to live.