Mandela on Film
A couple of weeks ago I was in Pretoria at the Union Buildings – South Africa’s equivalent of the American White House – and saw the new Nelson Mandela statue for the first time. The statue was unveiled last December just after Mandela’s death.
I shot some photos of the statue using my Holga film camera from Zavi Traders, and also with a disposable panoramic camera that I got from Zavi. Similar to the last time I shot with film, I have mixed feelings about the results I got from these two new rolls. But I’m really happy with the Mandela shots.
Mandela’s outstretched arms, shot on a Rollei panoramic disposable camera.
I had no idea that disposable film cameras still exist, let alone panoramic disposable film cameras. But I really loved shooting with this one and I’m hoping to do more disposable camera photography in the future. Apparently this particular model has been discontinued, which is a bummer.
Once again, I accidentally double-exposed this shot and achieved an interesting result: Mandela superimposed over some Joburg aloe trees. I shot this on the Holga using Rollei Redbird film.
On a totally separate and un-Mandela-like note: I recently attended a fascinating dinner theatre performance called Madame Zingara and took some photos with the Holga before the show. Unfortunately none of the shots came out and I can’t bring myself to blog about something when I don’t have photos of my own to include in the post. (Note to self: Stop trying to use the Holga in the dark.) But the show was fantastic and I want to do a quick plug for it. Madame Zingara is playing at Montecasino in Fourways through the end of December. You should go.
I’ll share more shots from my second round of analog photography in a future post.
Makes me want to see the statue even more!! The double exposure turned out beautifully!
Thanks so much. I’m pleased with it too. And yes, the statue is really beautiful!
Love love LOVE the first shot of Mandela’s outstretched arms! Almost like the Christ statue in Rio, in a way.
Mme Zingara - I seem to remember that - isn’t that a traveling show a little like Circe du Soleil where you have dinner while there is a sort of circus going on? Or maybe I’m off base here. I remember the evening because it ended it one of my numerous traffic stop stories. Got onto the highway at Melrose Arch and a cop stopped me. I was driving because my husband had had more wine than me, but I had no drivers license on me. Incredibly, he let me go.
Wow, that’s an amazing story about the cops pulling you over. You really had bad luck with that while here. (Or maybe good luck since you never went to jail – haha.) But yes, that’s the same show you remember. Glad you like the Mandela pic! And yes, you would love Kalahari :)
good luck/bad luck - I never could decide as I really would have loved to blog about jail but would have peed my pants at even the prospect:-)