AFRICA LENS

20 years of Getaway photography celebrated in impressive coffee table book. (Review by Caroline Smart)

The South African magazine Getaway has portrayed Africa’s people, fauna and landscapes for over 20 years. This achievement is celebrated in a splendid book titled Africa Lens. The front cover sees a microlight powered by a 50cc lawnmower engine flying over Victoria Falls while a gentler photograph of an assegai tree leaf lying on cracked bark in the Tsitsikamma Forest is on the back cover. The energy and flurry of the wings of African skimmers accompanies the Contents page.

Editor Justin Fox’s fascinating and humorous introduction states “Our desire to view, capture and share our experiences is evident in more than a century of voracious travel photography. In Africa, there is probably no single entity that has produced as many varied images as Getaway.”

Africa Lens celebrates the diversity of this great continent and in doing so serves as a sober warning that unless global warming, unchecked development, corruption and human greed are kept under control – much of the scenery depicted in this book will just disappear.

Getaway photography rules were laid down by founding editor, David Steele who wanted bight, commercial images that showed the best places to go and things to do in Africa. A change was effected with the arrival of Patrick Wagner as senior photojournalist. A former Sabi Sabi game ranger and a respected photographer in his own right, his vision was more artistic and his passion for wildlife raised the bar. One of the superb images in Africa Lens was taken when he climbed into a fish-spotter tower of a catamaran to photograph a rubber dinghy approaching St Pierre Island in the Seychelles.

Shooting covers has become a complicated business as so much rides on them and when a cover image is required from an assignment, the pressures are greater on the photographer. There is lively competition among Getaway photographers (Patrick Wagner wins hands down with 39 covers and Justin Fox is second with 30). The costs have also been high, the most tragic incident being a plane crash in the Ngong Hills outside Nairobi which saw the deaths of Patrick Wagner and three Getaway associates. Apart from the great loss to South African photography, it acted as a reminder of the risks associated with travelling and shooting in Africa: the highs are very high but the lows can be disastrous.

Don Pinnock took over as Getaway editor in 2007 and one of his images in the book shows the profile of the bows of two shipwrecks sprayed with wave foam taken North of Luanda on a trip with explorer Kingsley Holgate.

Getaway began experimenting, photography became more playful, and every effort was made to reinterpret standard and clichéd images. Examples can be seen in Africa Lens with images of the Great Pyramid Cheops at Giza, the Sudanic Friday mosque at Djenné in Mali and a beautiful photograph taken at Santo António at Principé Islands.

No matter how many times you look through the book, something else will always catch your eye.

The scenic shots are often breathtaking such as a Basotho man astride a horse with the mountainous Lesotho scenery behind him. Then there’s the Mongu settlement on the Barotse floodplain in Western Zambia, a zigzagging pattern of fish traps near Kosi Bay and the Namib Desert transformed by wild flowers. Kaokoland’s characteristic golden glow which appears about 30 minutes before sunrise can be seen in a fascinating photograph of the Kunene river near the Epupa Falls.

Sunsets and sunrises are much-loved by photographers because of the light intensity and the Kariba canoeists and fishermen make spectacular images. A balloon safari in Serengeti hovers above thorn trees starkly silhouetted against the blazing setting sun. Twilight off Dolphin Beach in Cape Town is beautiful while Table Mountain from Blouberg is seen during a freakish summer thunderstorm. A quieter image sees a Mokoro gliding for home in the Okavango Delta

Desolation is featured in the sand dunes built-up through wind action around the lighthouse at Cape Recife and a Landrover following a sandy track through Hartmann Valley in Northern Namibia. An endearing image portrays a young boy sitting on the steps of a crumbling mansion on Sao Tom. Adventure shots include some mad individual bunjee-jumping from the Table Mountain cable car.

There is much humour. A photographer’s shot of a little girl with a coppery shaded bucket on her head was “hijacked” when a bunch of young boys muscled in – all carrying their own buckets! There’s a delightful Adélie Penguin mid-dance and a new take on zebra crossings as three giraffes dwarf seven zebra running alongside them. Two men wade from a dhow to the beach at Benguerra Island, Mozambique, delivering provisions, sloshing ashore with their bags and suitcases.

Art images there are a-plenty: a beautifully lit photograph of a priest sitting in a rock-hewn church in Ethiopia; shifting sand ergs in Central Libya, the reflection of a fishing boat in Kalk Bay Harbour, the Boro River and adjacent floodplains blanketed in mist and “Green Turtle Abstract” on Réunion Island. Views from the inside of caves in Madagascar and Arniston give a mysterious feel to the underground river and sea respectively.

Wild-life pictures are stunning as is to be expected from Getaway but a once-in-a-lifetime shot shows a leopard climbing a baobab to where its kill is stored in a high fork.

Edited by Justin Fox, Africa Lens is published by Getaway Books in association with Jacana Media, Africa Lens' is on sale now for a recommended retail price of a very reasonable R240. – Caroline Smart