When I was about 15, I read a description of a photograph of a dancer in a book I was reading for a boekverslag. It described a young man, mid-flight – in a jump so high that the floor he had left and would return to was so far away it did not even form part of the captured image. And since then I have had a fascination with the way that the images, particularly of dance, are captured.
So often, photographers miss the nuance of the movement, the lighting obscures, or a fast-moving foot vibrates into a blur. So often dissatisfactory.
I became aware of Garth Stead as photographer when I noticed he had taken the publicity picture of Mamela Nyamza for the Baxter Dance Festival this year. It was a superbly intentional image.
And then in awe, when I received copies of the publicity pics for Jazzart’s ‘partly god’. I even said to my flatmate that I couldn’t believe what an amazing photographer he was. Particularly of movement. How excited I was to see more of his work. That was on Friday night.
Today there is an article in the Cape Times – a tribute to the life of this man who “painted in pictures”.
“No foul play is suspected”, they say.
So tragic, that so often, genius is tortured.
What an incredible loss to the art world.
I cannot begin to imagine, for those who knew him…
Fiona Gordon
fiona@artslink.co.za
www.artslink.co.za
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