Analog Photographic Festival Barrydale

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The Idea Behind the Analog Phototography Festival.

Some time last year (2019) i was chatting to my good friend Johan Wilke who in my books is one of the worlds unsung heroes when it comes to “ Desisive Moment “documentary photography. The conversation revolved around the point that true B+W photography that was shot on film ,processed and printed by hand had become a lost art and was not appreciated for the art form that it is. We both had studied in the 1980’s at Art School in Port Elizabeth witch is around 750km North of Cape Town , South Africa. Johan was two years ahead of me and i spent two years watching him and he became my mentor for life,

I went traveling Europe after collage for 3 years and on my return i needed to start my career somewhere so i looked up Johan at his first studio in Bree St Cape Town and ended up working as his assistant for a number of years till i could afford my own Studio and had the confidence to go it alone, I learnt everything i know about Fashion, Advertising, Food, Portraits and Beauty photography from assisting Johan, i have never met as talented and hard working photographer and he was, he was also a true gentleman and a visionary that would put in double the effort for a client and always push the envelope. This experience gave me the benchmark for my career of twenty years in the business in Cape Town,

Back to how how the Analog Festival came about ,Johan as many of us had burnt out from 25+ years of being a slave to our craft! What i mean by that is we started of wanting to be Henri Cartier-Bresson and ended up being stuck in groundhog day of relentless demands of a soulless industry that sucked up your every min for dawn till midnight. Being a full time professional photographer is an extremely demanding job as you day never ends and you are constantly either looking for work ,doing the job , doing post production or creating quotes ,invoices /marketing yourself and paying for studio space, equipment purchaser repairs ,insurance ,assistants and if you have a bad month or 4 you end up in dept you can't get out of, Look don't get me wrong ,it was fun for many years and one does choose to remember those time but eventually the figures do not ad up for the time and life and the amount of pressure you are constantly under, I had risen to the top of my game as i perceived it and had run out of steam and it was not fun any more so i quit my 650 squire meter penthouse studio “Studio One” and gave up my equipment rental studio and F-Stop Coffee shop id build took my mom out of the old age home and moved to the small town of Barrydale 250 km North of Barrydale where i have been for almost 10 years. My mom died happy with me 3 years later,

Now back to the present, i suggested to Johan that we have an exhibition of our Analog Photography and print up some of our old favourite images on B+W fiber bace photographic paper in my darkroom and have an exhibition for ourselves and those who still appreciated the craft and skill of the true B+W PRINT made in the darkroom. Johan who had also stepped away from the mad city life and was taking time to reevaluate life and creating a new body of work and me with my interest in Wetplate photography were both going back to our roots as artists enjoying the hands on methods of creating images and the idea became a reality, Then came the Virus and life was turned upside down, everything was put on hold till we could figure what was allowed and what not and in this time of uncertainty and stress Johan’s Heart decided that it was time to give up and he left us on 27 July 2020. 2 days before my birthday, What a shocker for everyone who new him and loved him and there went all his dreams for the exhibition and traveling the world again capturing those decisive moments of life that he was the master at.....

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