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When we at alt.SA first saw photos taken by Fringe Photography we were intrigued.
They step into the dark side so easily and with such beauty you can't help but stare in wonder. The photos transport you to the moment - their moment, their vision. You become intimately aware of the scene, the model and the story they want to tell.
The Fringe Photography team, Liz and Bothma van Tonder, took some time to sit down with alt.SA and discuss their passion and a recent shoot, titled Mea Culpa.
How did you get introduced to photography?
B: With her background in Art, Liz has always been interested in photography. So a couple of years ago, I bought her a DSLR camera for her birthday.
I started to play around with it one weekend and got interested in photography as well. We were both just sort of messing around for a while, until we decided to enrol for formal photography courses.
How long have you been taking photos?
L: It’s been around five years now, although we only started the actual Fringe Photography idea at the beginning of this year.
What do you like most about taking photos?
L: There are so many things we enjoy about it, but probably one of the biggest things has got to be the way that you are completely immersed in that specific moment when you look through the lens.
It’s like all the worries about work, finances etc just fade away and it is just you and your camera.
B: Apart from that, I would also have to say the amazing people we get to meet and work with. They are a big part of why we enjoy this much.
What is the first thing you focus on when taking a photo?
L: The emotion and feeling that the shot will convey is the most important factor for us, so we try to focus on whatever aspect of the scene will convey the “feel” of the shot.
In most of the cases, it definitely has to be the eyes. Someone can try to hide what they are feeling by using a certain facial expression, but you can always see the truth in their eyes.
Mea Culpa? What does it mean and what inspired the shoot?
B: Mea Culpa is Latin for “I am guilty”.
It’s also the title of a song by Enigma, and the idea for the shoot came to us while listening to it. The idea behind the shoot was to depict the struggle between good and evil, light and dark that a lot of people face on a day to day basis. A lot of people measure themselves on the norms of what society has set in terms of how we should conduct ourselves. When they don’t fit into that image, and the darker side comes to the surface, they blame themselves and think they are guilty of some sort of wrong, instead of rather evaluating whether the problem isn’t with society itself.
It also deals with the perceptions that we create about ourselves, based on what other people think. Sadly, for so many people, the way we dress, look and act is a complete opposite to what we actually are when we truly start looking into ourselves. That is where the idea of the nun’s habit with a sort of almost evil look came from, the whole contrast of what we dress, act and look like, versus who we actually are.
Who is the gorgeous, al be it eerily scary, model?
That’s Melanie Thompson. She was actually the first model that Fringe Photography officially worked with and has become a good friend of ours since then. She’s a fantastic person to work with, since she is very comfortable in front of the camera, is always up for any strange ideas we come up with, and she always manages to grasp the exact concept we are trying to convey and perfectly manages to bring that feeling into the shoot. All of this made her the natural choice for the Mea Culpa shoot. And of course, as you mentioned, she is absolutely gorgeous!
Where was the shoot done and why did you choose the specific location?
We did the shoot at the Sammy Marks museum in Pretoria. They have these awesome derelict burnt out buildings on the property and you can book shoots there, ensuring you have the location to yourself for a couple of hours, without any interruptions. The feeling of the old buildings, the privacy and the solitary grave in the woods just made it the perfect location for us.
Your photography captures the beauty of things that most people would find strange. What draws you to the dark side?
The reality and honesty of it all. Whether society likes it or not, the alternative scene has always been here and will always be here. We love the fact that there are so many people out there who are not willing to just follow everything blindly and neatly pop into whatever box other people wants to force them into. These people that we get to work with are real, they are who they are, and they are not afraid to show it to the world. That is their reality, and that is the reality that we are trying to depict through our photographs.
How have you evolved as a photographer?
When we started off with photography, we tended to just snap away and hope something comes out afterwards. Now we both focus a lot more on the feeling of the image and what we are trying to say with it. Also, when we started working with models, it opened up an entirely new world for us. We can now use the same location, but with different models the whole look and feel of each shoot will come out differently.
Best piece of advice you ever received about photography?
“Just let it go”. It was something one of our instructors said in a course. Sometimes you need to forget about the rules around composition, lighting and all the other things, and just shoot what you feel.
Have your best shots come from planning or by accident?
We try to plan the location, props, makeup and those types of things down to the finest details. But when the time comes to do the actual shoot, we tend to rely a lot on what the model wants to do. We don’t like telling people stand there, sit like this or pull a face the whole time. We like it when the model gets into the shoot and starts doing their own thing. So I suppose you could it say it’s a bit of planning, a bit of accident and sometimes just pure luck!
Most challenging shoot you’ve ever done?
Definitely the World Goth Day party at Zeplins Rock Shack in Centurion. It was very dark in the club and we wanted to capture that feeling you get on the dance floor with the lights, the music and the way that the people move. So we couldn’t exactly walk around popping off our flashes in people’s faces. We spent most of our time sitting next to the dance floor trying to time our shots to coincide with the strobes and other lights on the dance floor. Between the two of us, we came back with about 3 000 shots, out of which about 300 were usable afterwards!
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By ALT.SA REPORTER
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