Meet My Brother

I have this crazy little brother... well, actually I have three crazy little brothers, but I will start by telling you about the youngest one, because he is probably the most insane. This eight year old plays with cars and runs around in gardens, but he is at his happiest when he has a gun in his hand or when he is pretending to be the bad guy in whichever movie he just saw. To a casual observer, he might seem like a little boy who needs some spiritual guidance, but what is interesting about this scenario is that this is how his imagination shelters him: if you are the attacker, what have you got to be afraid of?

Luckily, his story always changes: as soon as the hero starts winning, he transforms himself into the new master. Even though he says words even I steer clear of and quotes only the most vulgar dialogue he hears, he still has a humorous innocence and will ultimately always ensure he ends up being the hero in his fictional games.



Intelligence Without Ambition

Mystery Man

My grandfather, Daniel Retief, who was a filmmaker, writer and actor, took a photo of a man at a train station in the middle of the Karoo, South Africa and I based this charcoal sketch on that photo. The man was well-known at the station, but he never soke to anyone and no one knew who he was or where he came from. He just waited on the station plaform for a train that never came and witnesses described him as a "eerily calm and content soul." This was in the 1940's and 50's when my grandfather was a young man, but the story still circulates in through those lonely farm towns.

Bonjour! Buongiorno! Guten Tag! Hola!

or just Hello....

I have always seen the world a little differently than most people and I have always attempted to see the intrigue and the beauty in it. I do believe, however, that there is no light without dark, no happiness without despair and no beauty without destruction. That is why I document anything that can ultimately teach me a valuable lesson about these elements. I cannot live without creation - whether it be creating something new myself or admiring other creations. Humans are extraordinary when it comes to creating: we were built for it and that is why there is so much magic around us everywhere we go.

I grew up in a creative environment and was taught to appreciate everything imaginative. I know the value of stories - they not only serve to transport us into different realities, but they give us the opportunity to share pieces of ourselves and to make sure we leave at least a few memories of who we were behind. I want to tell some of these stories and I believe the best ways to do it is through photography, through art, through writing and through acting. These methods allow me to reach more than just minds.

I also find the world funny, goofy and sometimes just insane, so I try to capture as much of it as I can in different types of frames to ultimately tell the fables...