Twenty years of photography of timeless portraits.

It's been twenty years since I have picked up a camera. I recently looked at my work to see what would be the one thing that I could say I have accomplished in my humble young career?

I have always wanted to create timeless images of people. I am also very privileged that, I have photographed some of the most well-known personalities and musicians in South Africa. When the opportunity came my way to create portraits of Lira, one of the most beloved musicians and multi award winning songstress. I knew that the portrait had to be timeless, it has to connect her to her new audience. What most people do not know about Lira is that she was a pop/kwaito artist before she started transitioning to this soulful sound. This soulfulness is what I wanted to capture in this portrait. Make the viewer get closer and intimate with her music and make them feel as though they know her. The choice became obvious to me. It had to be black and white; the clothes had to be simple so that they do not take over her captivating eyes and magnetic facial structure. Images date and they appear old as time passes. This is mostly because of fashion of the time which marks the picture and how the image gets treated in post-production. Skin gets treated to look like porcelain. Which I did very little of in this portrait. I kept it natural and left some natural marks that were naturally hers. It is worth noting that she has an amazing skin, and the makeup artist did an amazing job to match it. Which are some of the contributing factors that make this portrait timeless?

While colour is great in many cases, it can sometimes overwhelm us, when we want to engage with a portrait, unless it is done very well. One of the photographers that knows how to manipulate colour so well with portraits is Steve McCurry. I learnt very earlier on in my career that " when you remove colour form any picture, you start to engage with the image at an emotional level. I wanted the viewer to connect to Lira emotionally and look her right in the eyes.

This is why this image will forever be timeless in my eyes. I hope to learn and create more timeless images as I move forward in my career.