Man Friday

I made these shots at the Kimberley Hotel in Cape Town about a decade ago. I was fairly well acquainted with the clientele because I went there to photograph quite regularly.

A crack den hid diagonally opposite the Kimberley, across the intersection on which the hotel sat. The runner between the den and the hotel(in which a range of transactions took place) was a friend of mine. He sat quietly in the corner reading Daniel Defoe until someone needed something. Then he would place his book neatly on the corner of the bar and run the errand.

About 3 years ago I organised a Party to celebrate the launch of the DISTURBANCE DESIGN BOOK. At this point the bar was colonised and now is home to a small art crowd.

Pencil of Nature/Nature's Pencil

I recently visited the coastal town of Hermanus whose name always makes me feel a bit weird. The weather was of the (calo)type that William Henry Fox Talbot might have photographed and included in his exhaustive 'PENCIL OF NATURE' published 1844.

Light effects, 9m swells, squalls. It was beautiful.

Living at the base of a large and impressive rock has its drawbacks: how the hell does one represent an over-represented natural landmark?

Investigations are underway and point towards a series of discrete phenomena rendered without obvious manipulation. Some of the other shots are film, processing and subject-matter tests. For people with attention spans.

If you don't get it walk along the Sea Point promenade in stormy weather listening to Aphex Twins 'Selected Ambient Works' with some prime cans wrapped around your head. AKG

South African National Gallery

The SANG bought this work(cracked basin) from a series depicting the N1 highway which stretches 2400 kms from the South(Cape Town) to the North(Zimbabwe). I am filled with gratitude. I feel like SINGING. I will leave next week to complete the project.

These are other shots from the series which represent the core, and how I have chosen to see the road-as a particular road, not 'the road' which is an ubiquitous construct.

Sean O' Toole will write the accompanying texts in a high-key fashion. Scenes he has witnessed on the highway will be described economically-probably with not much reference to history, politics or sociology. Like the photographs. Titles are similarly angular, for example 'Cracked Basin' and 'Disassociated Cow'.

Here is an example of Sean's writing:


June 16, 2006: "If the highway is the theoretical expression of a straight line, reality proposes something else. The central barrier is testament to this: it is scuffed, bent, bruised, marked and knocked out of shape. Still, cement is better than metal. It is immovable, to a degree, plus it offers a good place to sit for a man with a pool cue. He sits waiting, watching the oncoming traffic - just like the speed cops. Today the barrier is also a good place to rest a windscreen, broken but still in one piece." copyright Sean O' Toole