Latoya Newman interviews
top Durban photographer. (Courtesy of Tonight)
Whether you’re an arts practitioner or a fan of the arts,
it’s hard not to know who Val Adamson is.
Her photography of the arts dominates many of the print and
online arts publications, and she’s also well- known as an avid supporter of
and activist for the industry.
So when this year’s National Arts Festival programme was
released and Adamson’s Love Dance
exhibition was included on the main, many celebrated the acknowledgment with
her.
Tonight spoke with Adamson last week. We wanted to get a
feel of the person behind the camera and find out more about her passion for
dance and the arts – which apparently partly stems from a secret desire to be a
dancer.
Born in Kenya, Adamson and her family moved to Scotland when
she was 12 years old. She spent her school and college years there, where she
studied photography at the Napier College in Edinburgh. She later moved to
South Africa to pursue a professional career.
We began our chat about Adamson’s journey into photography
and where it all began, or, as it turns out, where it almost never began.
She explains: “I was supposed to study zoology and
psychology and I just figured I don’t want to go and sit in a lab and I don’t
want to be Jane Goodall. So we were looking at the local college and we saw a
photography course and I thought it sounded interesting. I went for an
interview. I was 17 because I started school early, and they said you’re very
young, go away for a year, grow up, if you’re still interested then come back.”
After a gap year in the US working as a nanny, her employers
at the time gave Adamson a camera “to play with” – but obviously destiny was
determined to get her back to that college.
“I started taking pictures of kids. I travelled a lot and
took pictures of that and kind of figured that I was enjoying this… But it was
when I was in Chicago and saw an advert for an Ansel Adams exhibition and I
thought who is this dude? I walked in and I think that was the final moment
when I thought I have got to be a photographer. When I saw his work I was blown
away. I knew I wanted to be a photographer.”
After reapplying to the college she was accepted. “They said
they’d like to have someone who knew nothing,” she laughs, explaining:
“Technically I knew nothing but then I caught up after about a year. I’m very
happy I chose this profession.”
Getting to Adamson’s obvious passion in her photography –
the arts, she said: “It’s the people in the arts who drive me. I just love
working with these talented people. And I think I secretly wish I could be a
dancer. I’m a frustrated wannabe,” she jokes, adding that she finds that,
visually, what is created in dance and theatre is beautiful.
“Watching dance is an exciting, engrossing experience that,
once the performance is over, becomes an evocative emotion and lingering
memory. My challenge and thrill has been to endeavour to capture some of those
moments and, in so doing, save that image for posterity and allow the viewer to
relive the beauty of live dance,” she said.
We began to chat more about her exhibition at the NAF. She
explained that the exhibition was originally commissioned by KZN DanceLink and
premiered at The Pumphouse, Durban beachfront, in July last year. The
exhibition consists of 14 A1, 37 A2 and 7 A3 prints, as well as 12 full-size,
self-standing doors with Adamson’s images on them – a concept by the renowned
David Gouldie and constructed by Bryan Hiles.
“I had to work through many years of my work. Unfortunately,
I don’t have many of the very early ones, because the quality wasn’t good in
those days. Technology has come a long way in helping me with dance,” she
chuckles, adding that she loved the idea of having the doors as an element in
the exhibition. The exhibit covers about 20 years of Adamson’s work.
Commenting further on her work being shown at the NAF she
said: “I just think this is where it needs to be, because this is the right
audience for it. It’s a huge honour to have been chosen, I know not a lot gets
chosen for the main and it’s a huge festival this year, so I’m very excited. I
just hope the exhibition will have a little bit of an effect on people and they
will be encouraged to go and see more dance.”
Love Dance is
showcased at the NAF Red Foyer, Rhodes Theatre, from 09h00 to 16h00 until
tomorrow evening when the festival closes. (July 13) – Latoya Newman, tonight.co.za
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