In COUP’s July issue, you might have noticed that we had a whole new Creative Space feature pop up mid-month. The placeholder was dedicated to the awe-inspiring initiative by The Sunflower Fund to raise 100 000 photos, which were then sold with the money donated to the non-profit organisation.
The Sunflower Fund aims to inform and recruit a source of potential bone marrow stem cell donors in an effort to save the lives of those suffering from life-threatening blood disorders. This initiative in particular was called ‘Photos for Hope’, and because COUP loves photography and The Sunflower Fund, we were happy to showcase some of the beatuiful photograhs donated by professionals and non-professionals alike.
We have decided to place the feature on the blog too, so that those who missed out on paging through the feature in the magazine can still see the callibre of photos that were donated, and learn a little bit more about the photographers behind these stunning images. Here you are:
Roy Van Der Merwe
Roy Van Der Merwe is a well-established photographer as well as a Leukemia survivor. His submissions are of the Namibian Landscape and are actually 3-metre prints on canvas.
Natalie Field
Natalie Field’s submissions are images that look into the “child’s psyche, the world they live and breathe and the strength and light within them”. Field is an up-and-coming fashion photographer. Last year, she was one of the 10 finalists in the ELLE Magazine and Samsung New Young Talent Photographer Search.
Catherine Scott
Catherine Scott is a photographer based in Cape Town, specialising in portraiture of family moments. Her submission is a photo of a man called Dawid. “He needed a job one day, and I needed a model”, says Scott. She describes Dawid as having the “most amazing outlook on life”.
Mo Bassa
Mo Bassa is an amateur/hobbyist photographer based in Cape Town. The title of his image is ‘Seagull You Fly’. “I specifically selected this image for Photos for Hope because of the blue sky, the open spaces, and the freedom of the birds, clearly a message of hope and freedom”, says Bassa. The image was taken on the beach at the West Coast National Park, a few months ago. The image was shot with a Canon 7d, with Canon 18-200mm F3.5/5.6 lens. It was shot at ISO 100, f9.0, 1/500sec,Focal length 18mm.
Simone Millward
Simone Millward’s submission is titled ‘Drum’ and was shot in-camera with no post-processing. “It is purely painting with light, using one torch and coloured gels”, says Millward. He is a qualified photographer and journalist and has worked as a freelancer in both fields. He says, “I have a passion for both the visual and the verbal and am happy that I could find a way to marry both of them in my career.”
Candice Peetz
Candice Peetz’s submission is titled ‘Jack Frost at Sunrise’ and is a photograph of “a cold, frosty morning at Emmarentia Dam; a glimpse of warmth through the silhouette of the trees”. Peetz says, “Photography is my art, my expression of how I see the world. Behind the lens, I am just uncomfortable.”
Lebogang Afrika
Lebogang Afrika’s submission is titled ‘Lost where I belong’. He describes the photograph: “This guy has been in Johannesburg for about two years, begging people for food, money and shelter. [Here] he’s on his own thinking [about going] back to where he belongs.” Afrika studied Journalism and Photography at Birnam Business College and soon made a career out of taking pictures for big events hosted by corporate companies.
Kobus Kotze
Kobus Kotze describes his submission as “various pencils stacked on top of each other … I converted the image to mono-chrome”. He is a part-time photographer doing shoots, from portraits to products, including stock photos. “I love doing shoots of models, people and studio work”, says Kotze.
Ash Repka
Ash Repka is a stay-at-home mom and her submission is titled ‘Metal Bloom’. “This is a shot of the inside of a jet engine parked at Minot AFB airshow. I loved the dimensions, colour contrast and the fact that it looked like a big metal flower”, says Repka.
Darren Meltz
Darren Meltz’s submission is titled ‘Yom Ha’atzmaut’ and is a photograph of “Young Jewish girls taking part in a traditional dance on the holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut to commemorate the independence of the state of Israel”. Meltz qualified as a professional photographer in 2004 at Allenby Campus, where he studied under the guidance of Bob Cnoops. He says, “The main focus of my work is socio-documentary, of which my religion (Judaism) plays a fundamental role.”
