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2009: Top students |
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Boniswa Isaacs: Michaelis Boniswa Isaacs says her love affair with old films began at a young age and still tends to baffle her parents. “As a school girl I was definitely more cultural than sporty,” she says. After a brief year spent in the United States, the young traveller returned with a dream to pursue photography. “I knew that no matter how hard I had to work or how frustrating it was being a perfectionist, I would always love every minute of it. My first year at Michaelis, and seeing how far I’ve come, seems unimaginable.” At her fourth year exhibition at the end of 2009, Boniswa investigated the extent to which young women today are influenced by film and media, questioning whether or not violence against women has actually changed over the decades. She was finally able to integrate her love of old films with her work. “Echo of Dolls refers to the manner in which the Film Noir period portrayed its female characters as being glamorous and immaculate, yet they were often dismissed as objects of desire and possession for the male protagonist, while the passive-aggressive behaviour of men in Film Noir was often over-looked,” she says. Boniswa graduated from Michaelis with distinction and won a Merit Award for an outstanding body of work. Rootz Magazine named her a ‘Young Artist to Watch’ in 2008. Boniswa will be completing her Masters in Fine Art Photography in New York in 2011. Francois Nel: Stellenbosch Academy Francois Nel was cherry-picked by lecturer Jackie Murray from the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography as her top student, because his stark series of work was difficult to ignore. In fact, it was equally hard for us to choose one image from the series to feature on our stills pages this month. Francois explains that the series represents the fact that violent crime, although a problem for many people, is not a daily occurrence in wealthy white areas. For his photographs, he chose the Stellenbosch University campus as an example, featuring various students being murdered during their daily activities. Francois says, “The murder scenes were staged using students and photographed in a photojournalistic style, referencing Weegee’s work in the 30s.” The prints were exhibited along with fake news clippings featuring the photographs. Francois says he took a serious interest in photography during the second half of 2007, so much so that he cancelled his course in mechanical engineering and enrolled at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography to pursue a more creative line of study. Going forward, Francois intends to specialise in portraiture and editorial work. View Francois’ portfolio. Mads Norgaard: CityVarsity Mads Norgaard is a Danish-born photographer living in South Africa. CityVarsity’s Evert Lombaerd says it is the Dane’s inherent sense of hard work and good manners that has enabled him to integrate himself into South African life and work as a photojournalist, putting his subjects at ease to allow him to capture their lives. Whether he is documenting the opening of parliament or the night train to Khayelitsha, the inevitable awkwardness that comes from having a foreigner in one’s space is circumvented by the relationship building Mads does before even introducing his camera. This relationship does not always end after the photograph is taken, as in the case of Joining Hands Street Committee in Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain. Evert says Mads used the photographs from the work done in the area to build a homepage, this lead to sponsorship and investment in the children and neighbourhood of Tafelsig. Mads is still actively involved in the project even though he has long since received his marks. Emerging top of his class from CityVarsity in Cape Town, Mads uses his talent, the available light, and his technical photographic comprehension to always ensure that his pictures are the best they can be. Apart from photojournalism he also does fashion and beauty, weddings and other commercial work. View his portfolio. | |||
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