Street Portraits, Malealea Village, Lesotho, Southern Africa

 ' A shop owner and her daughter '

Every year in December I endeavor to travel and photograph in the rural areas of South Africa. I have done that for a couple of years now and have build up n comprehensive photographic portfolio of the people and places of our land. 

I prefer photographing in the Karoo, an arid region in the central part of South Africa, but recently the temperatures have become unbearable hot in December, which admittedly is in our hot summer season.

So this year my wife and I decided that we would visit the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho as its on a higher minimum altitude than any other country on earth and therefore hopefully a bit cooler!  It is also relatively close to where I live in Centurion near Johannesburg in South Africa


Malealea

We chose the small village of Malealea in the South-Western part of Lesotho as our base.
The Malealea Lodge is situated right in the center of the village of the same name and offers good accommodation at reasonable prices. Its also a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of big city life.

Staying at the lodge meant I was within a short walking distance of the village and surrounds which would make my photography much easier and accessible and I would be able to explore with my camera at any time of the day that I felt like...

Street portraits

In this blog post I would like to showcase my 'street portraits' of the people of Malealea. 

In the village I was told by the guides that one can photograph children without their permission but for the adults one should ask for their permission first. To a person from a western culture this would be problematic as photographing children without their parents consent has become a thorny issue. But here in Lesotho things are done differently....

Nevertheless I am generally hesitant to photograph anyone without their permission and in the village of Malealea I mostly asked before I photographed. Fortunately after I became a more familiar face in the village some children and even young adults would start to follow me everyday and ask to be photographed.

   ' Eagerly posing for my camera but they refused to smile! '

How I win the confidence of my subjects

Approaching strangers and asking them if I could photograph them has always been rather difficult for me. But the last couple of years I have been using a small portable battery powered Canon Selphy printer that can print a 'jumbo size' high quality archival print to win over the trust of the strangers I want to photograph.

It is very effective in winning over the local population, so much so that very soon word gets around and then 'my subjects' come looking for me rather than the other way round!  Sometimes it takes much explaining from me when someone demands more than one print as I'm limited to about 30 prints on a full battery and I have to be careful to make it last so as not to disappoint anyone. ( The battery for the printer cost more than the printer itself, so a second battery is not an option at this stage.)

Africa is generally quite poor and Lesotho is one of the poorest nations on earth and giving something tangible like a print is often received with great gratitude and almost always elicits a smile or a look of wonder...

I have even been told in some of the poorer rural towns that this was the first time that they have ever been given something like this and that it is one of the most memorable Xmas present they have ever received. 

The people often eagerly queue to have their photographs taken so that they can receive a print and its a very humbling experience to realize that something so small and cheap can be received with such pleasure and gratitude...

Below a group photo of individuals I photographed each proudly holding 'their portraits'.

  

When I insert my SD card into the printer and press 'start' a whole complicated process happens. There is a lot of noise and the printer prints one colour at a time so the paper is pushed in and out of the printer four times and each time the image is coated with another layer of ink and gradually the image becomes visible. This whole process is fascinating to watch and everyone patiently watches in rapt attention as 'their' portrait print magically develops in front of their eyes. 

   ' A Spaza shop inside a corrugated iron shack. Its unbearably hot inside '

Camera and lenses.

I recently bought the new Canon Mirrorless Full Frame camera, the EOS R, and I was keen to try it out on a personal project. I have been using it for all my commercial assignments since I got it and it has generally been working well with most pleasing image quality and spot on auto focus accuracy. It is a change from previous Canon EOS cameras in that the button and dial placements have been redesigned with the results that there is quite a learning curve. I'm hoping to do a review of the Canon EOS R once I have had it for a couple of months.

For my personal projects I like to limit myself i.t.o equipment and for these 'street portraits' I mostly used a Tamron SP 35mm F1.8 Di VC USD image stabilized lens. This lens is very sharp wide open and the built-in image stabilizer meant I could use it confidently indoors as well. The focusing accuracy of this lens is much improved with the EOS R.

  ' A young boy catching the warm morning sun in front of his hut '

I'm not really a 'bokeh' type of photographer as most of my personal work is 'street portraits' where the surroundings are as important as the people.  I also used the inexpensive Canon Ef 50mm f1.8 STM 'nifty fifty' occasionally.

    

The nice thing about the EOS R for me is that I can pick an aperture and minimum shutter speed and just let the iso fall where it may. The EOS R produces 'good enough' image quality for me. I like to have a camera that does the mundane things like focus and exposure automatically and therefore having a camera that can focus accurately is very important. With the mirror less design the exposure can be seen before the photograph is made so its a no brainer, really. 

The only negative with this 30mp sensor is that I find camera movement/shake is more noticeable and that I have to use a higher shutter speed than normal when hand holding the camera or even when on a tripod as subject movement is much more critical than with cameras that have sensors with less pixels...there is always a trade off I suppose...

Generally this is a most enjoyable camera to use.

   ' Outside view of a tiny corrugated iron shop '

                  

  

 

  ' Dining room, kitchen and lounge all in one '

 

   ' Interior of a local shebeen '

   ' Horses are common and the young boys learn to ride bareback from an early age '

   ' Shebeen exterior decorated with hand carved sandstone blocks '

  ' Retired school teacher with her grandchild in her lounge '

   ' The rural village of Malealea '

   ' These young boys followed me around and were eager to be photographed '

Regards,

Ivan