Patrick Sitwayi
- Thom Pierce
- Jun 4
- 2 min read
Series: The Price of Gold
Location: Eastern Cape, South Africa
Year: 2015
I took this portrait of Patrick Sitwayi & his wife, Asive Bingwa, in 2015 at their home in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. I was in a bit of a rush and I didn't realise until I was editing the photographs that I had left a foreign object in this documentary scene.
Whilst making The Price of Gold, I met all the miners who were named in the class-action lawsuit. As an advocacy tool I took a white miners helmet with me and asked each person to sign it. You can see that helmet on the bed on the left hand side of the image. Oops.
I could have cropped it out in the edit, but I liked the inclusion as a nod to the project we were making.
There is a painterly quality to this portrait that really makes it pop. The subjects look like they are created with oils on canvas, but it's all to do with the lighting. If you look carefully, you can see that the light outside is very different to that inside.
It was a very overcast day and there was very little lighting inside the Rondavel (a circular house with a thatched roof). I always use flashes in my work as it forefronts the subject, and they are the most important thing for me, every time.
The light that I put up in this shot lit the whole room, falling onto the the subjects in a way that makes them stand out from the deep green wall behind them.
Outside there is only natural light so, through the window the scene is lit very differently. A lot of photographers would try to correct this for balance, but I don't mind. I think it adds to the unique look of the image.
There are many considerations both conscious and unconscious that are made when creating a portrait. I always try and find some clutter free space on the wall behind the subjects heads. This gives them a bit of room to exist without too much distraction.
Photographs are as much about what was left out as what is in the frame. Behind me there were two tiny babies lying on another bed, completely uninterested in what we were doing.
Comments