Of Beaches & Generators

I recently shot a campaign for Sun Coast Casino in Durban, we shot plates at the casino and then some models in studio and one model on the beach in Cape Town. After being rained out the first day in Cape Town, we returned on a glorious day, which was rad for photography but really shit in terms of lugging gear and a generator through beach sand. By the end of the day Jason and I were broken men! But with the promise of beer and these last couple shots I took of Armanda, all ended well.

Slow Show

A while ago, 2 very cool Wits students approached me about doing a short documentary about me and my work. The idea they had was based on a French film 'Le Jetee' made up entirely of still black and white images. After a series of very chilled meetings and interview sessions they had what they needed. We had chatted about them accompanying me on a 'personal' shoot but due to the fact I had to leave for a while on a job, they came to the very next shoot I had booked. They still may accompany me on a job of a more personal nature to add to the documentary.

I think they did a great job and it was a super humbling experience for me. They even threw in 'Slow Show' by The National for good measure! so thanks to Samantha Nell and Mark Middlewick for making it easy and doing something rad. Here's a YouTube link if you wanna see it.

This is a pic that Samantha took of me on the shoot. I don't have many pictures of myself and I really love this pic.

Quay 700

These are a few of my favourites from the 2nd episode of Model Millions. I loved this day. So much. Bianca Tanchel styled it and Carl Isaacs, Merle Titus and Bianca Hartkopf did hair and make up and the mighty Sebastian Voight helped me out.

Post War Post

So, these were gonna be published in Dossier Magazine but now they want me to do some longer stories for February which is gonna be super rad... So here they are again!

R

I'm Open

A man lies in his bed in a room with no door
He waits, hoping for a presence or something, anything to enter
After spending half his life searching
He still felt as blank as the ceiling at which he stared
He is alive, but feels absolutely nothing, so is he?

When he was six, he believed that the moon overhead followed him
By nine, he deciphered the illusion, trading magic for fact, no trade-backs
So this is what it's like to be an adult?
If he only knew now what he knew then

Lying sideways atop crumpled sheets and no covers
He decides to dream...Dream up a new self...For himself

The last 2 months have been the craziest ride. The lyrics from Pearl Jam above ring true. At least I'm open and for now, I feel. More than ever. No trading magic for fact. I'm sure by now some of you would've seen the Model Millions or heard the stories. A huge fuck up in many respects, but in others the best experience of my life. I was lucky enough to work with some of the finest people one could hope to meet. So, for that, thank you. We managed to put together 2 full episodes and it is a huge pity that we couldn't do more together, as I have no doubt that we all could've done something special.

The rest i'm not gonna go into but ask me over a beer and i'll share!

War Post

K, so below is what I posted last night, I also posted some pics but i've just removed them because they're gonna be published in a super rad magazine in December, so for now i'm not gonna say anything about and wait till December to put them back! But thanks for the opportunity to publish them. Rad.


A long time a'comin. Been super crazy of late and amongst shooting, a back log of retouching, a day fishing, some portraits of my grandparents (who incidentally shared their 70th wedding anniversary the other day, crazy!), some planning for a new shoot which I'm really excited about, buying film and learning a new camera I have found some time to post this, which makes me happy!

These garments were inspired by the 1940's and recreated. One of the garments is a war time piece and the other 2 are part of 'New Look' just post war. I was asked to shoot these for a costume designer and with little time and no budget for a location shoot, I decided I opted for some film, a 4/5 camera, a Pentax 6/7 and shot studio portraits. I had watched the Annie Liebowitz documentary a few days prior to this shoot and my love and passion for photography was at a high, so decided to go back to the old school and 'make' pictures whilst shooting rather than 'take' pictures and 'make' them afterwards.

This process soothed my wounded soul and after stressing over whether or not I had got the focus right on f5.6 with the bellows tilted and shifted to the max, I got them processed and scanned and was presently surprised! The first three are the 4/5 shots and the other two were shot on the Pentax. They're very simple but I like them, maybe more because of the process, I don't know yet?

On another note. Summer, Fishing, Beer and a particle accelerator. Fuck Yeah.

R

Converse Century

I shot the new Converse campaign a while ago. The campaign is based on the international campaign using 'icons' strung together and joined by the feet. It was a really cool campaign to work on, one of the icons was Cassius Baloyi, we took this portrait on the day. It was also really cool meeting Jonty Rhodes, believe it or not, I'm the hugest cricket fan!

Testing 1,2,3

I haven't done a lot of beauty stuff, but when the opportunity comes I really enjoy it. I think you have a lot of control in terms of lighting which is rad. This was a test I did with Liz Van Der Merwe, it was cool.

People Of The Book

So, this is the first of a few. This was from the Cell C 'Book' campaign. It was on the back of the TV shoot, so I literally had about 5 minutes to knock these off. Sometimes it's rad just winging it with limited lighting. I wouldn't say these are particularly crafted but I quite like one or two of them.

13 For Life

Yesterday was a horrible day. Today is equally so. Our friend is gone. I'm frustrated and sad and confused. I wanted to read a book of his short stories, I wanted to ride my vespa next to his. I wanted to find out more about my new friend. All I know for sure is that he left his mark on all of those who cared for him and that I'm glad that I knew him. So for today, I wear my black Motorhead T-shirt and if he were here, he'd find that amusing! Take care man.

R

Migrate Magazine

Migrate Magazine was released last Friday. It's the Loeries annual magazine put together by Network. They did a really rad job. The cover was designed and illustrated by Johnny Kotze. Angie Batis, Joanne van der Linde and Johnny designed and layed it out and Graeme Jenner did copy. My brother (Jono) and I were asked to contribute whilst interpreting 'Make Your Mom Proud'. I did a series of portraits of people who you conventionally wouldn't associate with making their moms' proud, but in fact do. I photographed a tatooist, an illusionist and stilt walker, a cross dresser, an anarchist and a suicide girl. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this, I really appreciate it. Here's what we came up with and a cool picture of our Mom.

And here's what Graeme wrote on the profile page about us. Thanks Graeme!

ROSS GARRETT
Ross is a lonesome photographer. He has a girlfriend but her mouth is always so full of schnitzel unt sauerkraut that she never talks. Maybe that’s why he’s such a good photographer, he has nothing else to do. He likes to shoot people, but not in the way that Columbine kid did, no… with a camera, silly. See pg. 5

JONATHAN GARRETT
Jonathan stems from the same vagina as Ross, but not at the same time, obviously. Yes, they are brothers, and they clearly share the same creative DNA because they are both clever visual little chaps. Jonathan also wanted to be a photographer but couldnt because he has no face (it was burnt off in a freak chip oil accident in '84) No, not really, I totally made that up. Look what jonathan made on pg.8.

Random Play

Here are a few that I took whilst on other shoots. The portrait of the gentleman in front of The Alps backdrop is of a Dr. Phillip (the one on the left). He is a portrait photographer who has been working out of his studio in town for the last 20 years or so. I'd like to go back there at some point to do some more stuff.

Something A Bit Sinister

Here is the first few from a shoot for Sinister Studio. A post production house that do some amazing work. I thought some eerie 'family portraits' could be really rad. So here the first few...

Hungover On A Monday

I was asked to come up for a concept for some portraits of the Terraplane directors. I thought an aftermath of a party could be quite interesting. I wanted to create an environment that looked like the morning after. Warm, sun drenched rooms and an atmosphere of remorse! Without being vile about it. David Hutt styled it and each director had input into their own environment. I even shot a self portrait! Well, kinda, Jason Meintjes shot it. One of the only shots I have of myself, depicted here as the photographer at the function, no friends, just a nice glass of bubbly and a rad camera!