Hey, January!
Lakeshore, Toronto
Well, 2022 is finally behind us - do I hear you say, and thank goodness for that?! From rising inflation and the ever-increasing cost of living, to the downturn in the markets affecting our pensions if we have them and our retirement savings; from the continuing whack-a-mole battle with Covid variants to the climate emergency and the risible yet sinister lies and fabulations of the right-wing populists and alt-news media and on, most tragically and visibly, to Russia’s savage and unforgivable war of choice in Ukraine, last year was a year that many of us would prefer not to remember, a year we are happy to shut the door on.
Yet, at a personal, individual scale, 2022 was also, for us at least, a year of more positive changes and developments. It was a year that brought Rob and me back to our home in Canada, at the end of a long, rewarding but - for Rob, especially - challenging period of living and working in South Africa, a year which launched me into what already is turning into a busy, creative and fulfilling retirement, allowing time, for instance, for a wonderful visit to the UK to see friends and my son Jonathan and his family and the English grandchildren - including, for the first time, the irrepressible two-year old imp Sebastian; a year in which life, for the first time in many years, seems our own to live and to make the most of. The one big sadness, of course, was leaving my family in South Africa - my daughter Kath and her family, including our only grand-daughter, Olivia, and my 91 year-old mom. On the other hand, our return to Toronto has reunited us with my youngest daughter Eve and her family, including the ever-enthusiastic six-year-old Joshua.
Mini Cooper, Ashwell UK
So, life goes on. The world may seem as if it’s going to hell in a hand-basket, but our own little lives are busy and absorbing (though there is much more we want to do!) and we count ourselves fortunate. In any case, it’s not our problem any more, the world and its madness - leave it to those younger, smarter, stronger than us to take care of, I say! I don’t see this as selfishness: it’s not that I don’t care, I do. Rather, I see this as sanity, as time hard-earned, time that is finite and to be spent wisely, beneficially and, most of all, appreciatively.
And in that spirit, I am happy to share my latest portfolio with you, a collection of black-and-white photographs of country towns and villages in South Africa.
New Portfolio - Country Towns in South Africa
Prince Albert, 2021
Taken over a ten-year period, between 2012 and 2022, this series of photographs is from a project on South African country towns and villages. I say, ‘a project,’ but it is not a project in the sense that I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I’m going to do a project on country towns in South Africa.’ Rather, it evolved organically, as Rob and I criss-crossed the country on holidays and road trips and I began to see, and then to understand, what it was I was interested in, and why I was interested.
Many of the images are of small Karoo towns, and many of these in turn are of the Dutch Reformed Churches whose steeples are visible for miles around in the vast, semi-desert region that lies, metaphorically and geographically, at South Africa’s centre.
There is something about these Karoo towns, in particular, that has always spoken to me - the stillness of the empty streets in the heat of the day, the white, shuttered cottages, the big skies overhead. And always, at the edge of town, or sprawling out into the arid land, the coloured settlement or African location. In South Africa, as elsewhere, as Faulkner wrote, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’
And that, as much as anything, is what really interests me.
Lovely news from The Glasgow Gallery of Photography
In my last blog post, at the end of that year we are glad to be rid of, I wrote about why it is that I take photographs. I also mentioned that my aim in 2023 was to try and make my work more visible, and to see how it holds up against the work of other photographers, by submitting my photographs to galleries and competitions.
Well, here is some good news with which to kick off the new year - one of my images has been accepted for an exhibition of landscape photographs at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography. I am not supposed to pre-empt the show by sharing the photograph ahead of the event, but I can tell you that it is a black-and-white dune landscape (not the one below, obviously) from Namibia.
The show runs from 3 - 31 March, and there will be an online gallery as well as a physical exhibition. I hope to include a link to the exhibit, and to my image, in my next blog post. Meanwhile, you can click here to visit the gallery and see what else the Glasgow Gallery of Photography has been up to.
Dunes, Namibia
Kruger Sightings Portfolio
Leopard cub, Kruger National Park
Did you read the newsletter I sent out earlier this month, introducing my Kruger National Park wildlife portfolio? In case you missed it (or were so awfully busy that you chose to ignore it) here is a link you can click on - do take a look if you haven’t done so already, and let me know what you think of it.
Other updates
I have also refreshed the Home Page on my website, and added this image to my Ontario portfolio, Provincial Scenes, in case you want to take a look. As always, just click on the links.
Canada Day, Pelee Island
News Flash - It’s easy as pie to order prints!
Those of you who already own prints of my work will know that I was able to make use of a top fine art printer in Johannesburg, Silvertone, to print my photographs.
It has taken me a while to find a printer of similar quality here in Canada, but I am happy to say that Imagefoundry in Toronto fits the bill beautifully. So, finally, I am able to offer prints to order, with complete confidence, both in Canada and the US and in South Africa. I am also able to send prints to the UK and Europe.
In offering my prints for sale, my aim is not to start a new career or business (heaven forbid - ed.) nor am I hoping to make pots of money (as if, right!). My aim, quite simply, is to make it possible for anyone who likes and enjoys my work to own a fine art print of their own, at reasonable prices.
Prices, excluding shipping, are in Canadian dollars (note: paper sizes include image borders):
8” x 10” - $100
11” x 14” - $150
16 x 20 - $200
20 x 30 - $300
Payment in Canada can be made via Interac. In the US and internationally, payment can be made through Paypal. In South Africa, if you prefer, you can pay either by Paypal or by direct bank transfer. All major currencies accepted.
You can use this form for orders and inquiries:
And, finally - A GIFT for someone! Maybe you!
Offer limited to Canada only
To celebrate the fact that I am now able to offer high quality, fine art giclee prints of my photographs on request, and at reasonable prices, I am giving away one of my prints, FREE, to the person who makes the best case for owning it.
The print, Rain over the Maluti Mountains, captures a rainstorm breaking over the Maluti Mountains in the Eastern Free State region of South Africa. The photograph is printed on premium baryta paper and measures 11 x 14 inches, including borders.
If you would like to own this photograph, just send me an email with your name and contact details, including a phone number and physical address, explaining why you would like it and what you plan to do with it. Make me laugh, make me cry, intrigue me or move me! And I will pop the photograph into the mail to you.
It’s as simple as that!
Rain over the Maluti Mountains