In August 2012 I initiated a new series of work, using the Playboy South Africa Playmates, to go alongside a group exhibition called Nostalgia, which I was curating at Exposure Gallery.
A series of shots on the side for Yolandi to post on social media…
The approach for the shoot took a while for me to plan, I wanted the final images to really look like old originals and thus decided to layer the processing of the images.
I shot in studio against a mid-tone grey back-drop roll using two lights; a strip soft box creating rim light and a beauty-dish with a grid as the main light. After retouching and quite substantial colour manipulation (to adjust backgrounds and props appropriately) I overlaid the files with previously documented textures and then had them printed out onto cotton-based Hanhemulle.
I spent a couple of days staining, soaking, burning, crushing, folding and generally damaging these originals until they looked sufficiently handled and then re-documented them on a white background. These files were again re-worked before final exhibition prints were created , again on Hahnemulle.
Bubbles, hair, makeup, refernces, shooting, nails and friends popping in (thats Yolandi M. top middle, Mpho bottom middle and Leigh Van Den Berg bottom right)
For each of the playmates I worked with I produced a semi-nude final image for the exhibition and a nude for publication in Playboy magazine itself. We also shot one or two fun closer up shots for each Playmate to use on social media.
Great pinup-style makeup done on Yolandi Wiggett by Colleen Van Rensberg.
In October 2014 I worked on an advert for www.passionfruit.co.za as director of photography.
The online sex-toy retailer had cleverly decided to advertise during the launch and screening of the much anticipated cinema block-buster “50 Shades of Grey” (launching Friday 13th February, 2015, TODAY!).
We had 20 seconds of advertising space, the ad would be the last one screened before the movie showed across the country, a creative and fun project to be involved with.
Some behind the scenes moments captured during the making of www.passionfruit.co.za’s NuMetro cinema advert last year at Banksia Boutique Hotel.
Ross Campbell did a fab job of shooting all the video footage and managed the editing and sound while I co-ordinated location, styling, models, props, concept and dialogue, etc. We shot over one day at the beautiful Banksia Boutique Hotel in Rosebank, Mowbray with our male figure Daryn (not pictured here) and model Yolande Malherbe who I worked with at Playboy a few years previously.
The concept was simple, fun and clear: www.passionfruit.co.za is the place you’re going to find your inner 50-Shades as they don’t just stock the original range, designed with the author of the book, but also another 1000+ similar goodies to spice up your bedroom life-style in which ever way you choose.
The ad played loosley on the characters in the movies’ storyline as well as having a touch of a BDSM feel in a very low-key way.
I enjoyed the editing process which I’m not so familiar with since I only work with stills. The added elements of timing, movement and sound etc are so powerfully interpreted by a viewer…
I shot a few stills after the shoot for www.passionfruit.co.za to use as banner ads on their webpage or social media platforms if needed, and one or two pretty lingerie-ish ones just for Yolandi and myself.
Its the first time the negligee she’s wearing has ever been used from my lingerie collection….and its been in there for a good 10 years.
I mailed Yolandi these few pics a day ago and asked her what her thoughts were about the shoot we did together:
What did you think of the concept for the advert which was loosely based on the characters of the 50 Shades movie?
I thought it was a clever. I mean, selling sex toys is never subtle or discreet, but the way this ad was done, was brilliant! When I heard who all would be a part of the production team, I was totally at ease and knew it would be done super professionally.
Your thoughts on lip-biting “know-how” now that yours will be cinema screen size?
It’s all in the name of pulling off a great job. I had my shy moments on set and I blushed when I saw the final results, but everyone knows I’m not conservative and very open minded. People will probably be like “Of course Yolandi is in this ad. Wasn’t she a sex columnist at one point?”
How do you think the movie 50 Shades of Grey will be received in SA….do you think passionfruit is going to run out of stock? ;-)
I dont think SA is as conservative as before, so there will definitely be no protesters outside! Haha! People loved the book and now there’s a movie – recipe for success. And I most definitely think people are going to save the website link when they see the ad, just before they have to switch their phones off. And then when they get home….add to cart.
I reckon 50 Shades has done quite a bit for South African conservatism in the bedroom…which means passionfruit have probably hit the nail on the head with their ad space. This quote from the passionfruit press release:
Jörg Masche, Co-Founder of Passionfruit.co.za, believes that the global phenomenon of the 50 Shades trilogy has lifted taboos and shifted stigmas, allowing people to expand their sexual consciousness and unwrap their sexuality without fear of judgement.“Activities such as role-play and BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission) have become acceptable thanks to 50 Shades,” adds Masche. “Kinky is in and, as a result, many couples who were playing around with the ideas of role play or something a bit saucier, can now experiment and have fun without any negativity attached to their sexual preferences.”
I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of press comes of the 50 Shades movie in SA media as well as hearing about how this advert effects www.passionfruit.co’s stock levels…
I lived in Stuttgart for a period of months when I was 17. I was going to school there and living with a friend and her family who stayed in a picturesque village out of town.
I had a cheap-as-hell 35mm film camera and shot a lot of film while on the trip. There were three occasions however on which I took photos that have since inspired my work….
The images are haphazard; they were randomly and spontaneously captured and seem reminiscent of portholes into moments one can nostalgically never quite return to. They represent a sort of iconic state of femininity and abandon.
Maybe it has something to do with the dreaminess that is European light? Maybe it was the nondescript spaces? And maybe it was the naive innocence and carefree joy of those Summer days and the freedom that came with the times…I don’t know.
There was a small sort of wilderness directly behind the family home where some of these images were taken on a funny day between the four of us. I think we’d just gone for a walk and had ended up messing about doing gymnastics and sunbathing in the long grass and flowers.
A second occasion was an excavated dam on the border of France on a day trip around Easter and the third was out and about during a spontaneous afternoon of paddle-boating on a lake on day after school.
I suppose these images represent the moments that come between naivety and self-awareness, and in this I find beauty and inspiration.
Sadly, I posted some of the negatives to Germany years later and never got them back. Jojo, if you ever find them, please return them to me!
In first year photography, about 5 years later, I tried to re-create the atmosphere of these original images shot in 2000 as one of my personally motivated projects.
These new images, shot on Holga, have a certain energy but I felt like it was impossible to capture again the fleeting moments of those perfectly naive years before…
My beautiful sister Jacky fell pregnant with her first daughter in 2008. She was one of the first pregnant figures I worked with and I documented her a total of about seven times during her two pregnancies.
I shot a small series of images of her in our Grandmothers shawl (below and above pictures), as well as a series of silhouettes, images with her husband and with her daughters (during pregnancy & after birth). Here are a selection of the ones I find most special.
My Sister is the second oldest of the younger tier of our (female dominated) family on my Mothers side and was the first to have children, two daughters, confirming a recent comment about our family as “A Coven of Women” (which makes me smile).
I regret not documenting her first daughters “birth-day” but was terribly sick at the time and only got to photograph her a while later.
During Jacky’s second pregnancy I documented her in studio and on the beach with her little girl.
They stood on the beach for me, early one morning, when Jacky was about eight months pregnant.
Windswept on a beautiful Cape Town day these images are memorable for the sweet moments they shared talking about the soon-to-be new member of their family.
We shot a series of the two in studio, all soft natural light. I’ve realised how much I prefer a more “honest” and natural approach to documenting this kind of subject matter, thus I will almost always use available light and or outdoor spaces.
Her second babe arrived in June 2011 and I photographed their first moments together just hours after birth. Jacky stared at each perfect little piece of her while I captured these moments.
For each of the playmates I worked with I produced a semi-nude final image for the exhibition and a nude for publication in Playboy magazine itself. We also shot one or two fun closer up shots for each Playmate to use on social media.
