Theatre

I’ve always been smitten by the magic of the Theatre. As a very young man, I wanted to be an actor and performed on stage in several productions despite having been warned about it's precariousness as a profession,. My fleeting experience treading the boards, also a brief spell with the University of Cape Town Ballet company as a dancer, gave me a real taste of all the ‘heart-break-house’ penury for which the profession is renowned and which, had I continued to act, or dance, would surely have been my lot. I moved on to more "sensible" ways of earning a living and it was only years later that I actually was, quite by chance, invited to photograph a professional play.

It was a chance meeting, arranged by my wonderful, larger than life friend the late Robert (Bobbie) Lang., which was to lead me to follow my true calling: theatre photography, and a life of such creativity and joy. Bobbie introduced me to Leonard (Lennie) Schach, who invited me to shoot his production of the marvellous Jewish play "The Tenth Man" at the then new, up and coming, Playhouse Theatre in Braamfontein Johannesburg. The rest, as they say, is history.

For many years after this initial association, I enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with Lennie and his "Cockpit Players" shooting most of his productions and the many other production company’s plays including the grand opening productions of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, in the early 1960's.

The transition to theatre photography as a career was not immediate however. Six years were to pass, during which I worked as a tourism photographer for SATOUR, which was great fun but unfulfilling, before I was invited to join the then Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT). It was an incredibly lucky break. I was PACT’s chief photographer for 25 glorious years and never looked back.