SA Rocks

I haven’t featured a photographer from the SA Rocks Flickr Group in a while and thought this was a great opportunity.

Charlotte_ZA from on Flickr just added the following stunning photographs to the SA Rocks group on Flickr.

Charlotte_ZA has some absolute phenomenal photographs of bands on her flickr profile page so head over and have a look.

Popularity: 10% [?]

A few weeks ago I got wind of ArtRevision.com and immediately loved the idea and had one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” ideas. I love the concept and think it has a lot of legs to go far and keep the founders very, very busy.

So I thought that I’d get in touch with some of the people behind the idea. And this is what I got out of them:

First off, tell me exactly what Art Revision is and how it came about.

Nicola Perk: The big idea of Art Revision is to provide affordable hand-crafted oil paintings. Art Revision is a website that allows anyone to upload their digital photos or select old masters’ paintings that they’d like replicated. Our team of artists complete the painting, and then we deliver to anywhere in the world. It was Yolande who started it and the team from World Wide Creative who evolved it into a web-based business.

Yolande Roed: It started by accident. My husband, Fred, always had canvasses and paints lying around the house, so when my first child was seven months old I was at home, bored, and wanting something to do while baba was sleeping. I picked up a paintbrush and started painting.

Nicola Perk: …and everyone was amazed!

Yolande Roed: Well, it was my husband who’s really the artist, but I really enjoy painting. My first attempt was a copy of a Renoir.

Nicola Perk: It was so good; Fred didn’t talk to her for a week.

Exactly what is art?

NP: I think people have different views on this. Me – I think art is something that people enjoy looking at.

YR: Art is an experience, whether participating or viewing.

Aren’t you just copying other people’s work?

NP: For the masterpieces, yes. Not everyone can afford a Van Gogh original. We only make replicas of artists whose works are in the public domain.

YR: In the case of the digital photos, nope. This is more than copying. It’s a conversion of an image to another medium. In the case of the artworks, it’s a way of honouring the original work. None of the work is signed as an original. In Italy, there are respected schools where apprentice artists are taught to reconstruct the famous masters.

The cost of the paintings are fairly priced, why is that?

NP: That is the opportunity that Art Revision is exploiting. Every painting we deliver is hand painted, which is something that usually costs a lot of money. Our model allows us to harness economy of scale and keep the costs down.

Yolande Roed: It’s not one painter anymore, which would make it more expensive – it’s a team of painters. I don’t actually do any painting anymore. When I’m not with my kids, I spend much of my time phoning resellers and making sales. We outsource the paintings to a variety of highly skilled painters.

How long does it take to reproduce an average order from the website?

NP: Paintings take 3-4 weeks from the order – just enough time for the paint to dry.

Yolande Roed: If delivering outside of South Africa it may take longer for the actual shipping.

Why did you decide to launch this idea / company on a web platform?

NP: It’s what we at World Wide Creative call an ‘Accelerator Project’ which is part of our whole Heavy Chef philosophy of ‘Never Trust a Skinny Chef’. We all spend 1 day a week on projects of our own in order to flex our creative and technical muscles, as well as to educate ourselves. In this way, we experiment with our own ingredients, so to speak.

YR: It’s also something that allows someone like me – a stay at home mom – to gain additional income. Anyone can sign up as a reseller and then make money just by referring a painting. This becomes so much easier online.

What has the response been so far since your official launch?

NP: Unbelievable!

YR: The thing that really makes people excited is when they see a real painting.

What is the most interesting piece that you have been asked to reproduce?

NP: Our first sale via the new web system was to my father-in-law who is an avid racer. He got emotional when he saw his photo of him racing an old car transformed into a large oil painting. Yolande painted a Gaugin replica and all the responses were focused on how amazing the lady’s bottom was.

YR: Also, I painted a Gustav Klimt, which got stolen from our garage. I was so honoured.

Who does all the painting? Just one person?

NP: Yolande used to be the sole painter, but as demand grew we used our network to find suitable artists.

YR: The artists who paint the oils from photos are very specialist in their skills, and so are different from the artists painting the replicas.

And finally, the existential art question: “Does art imitate life, or life imitate art”, what do you think?

NP: I am not a very deep thinker, so art imitates life.

YR: Well, I tend to, at this stage of my life experience, agree with Heidegger who aptly put it this way : “The artist and his work are equally primordial. The artist is the origin of the work. The work is the origin of the artist. Neither is without the other.” It’s impossible to trace art to a single principle and the consequent danger of generalizing that would follow. Other than that, if it matches the couch, it’s good.

Thanks to the ArtRevision team for getting involved in this interview. I can’t stress enough how great it is to see such a unique idea coming to fruition and proving to be fun as well as profitable.

For more information about ArtRevision and how to get your paintings done visit the ArtRevision website. But as a closing here are some steps that the site provides about how to get from your photo to a painting:

1. Select the “Create oil paintings from your photos” on the home page
or click here.

2. Press the browse button & find your image file.

3. Press “Upload” & wait for your image to appear

Please note the file size should be around 500kb & in jpg format

4. Fill out the required details e.g. size and quantity, along with any additional details.

5. Add to cart and either carry on shopping or start the buying process.

6. Payments can be made via EFT or via Credit Card.

7. Before shipment we will send you a photo of the painting for approval.

Please note that the size is constrained to the original ratio of your image. If you require a bespoke size please send us your request via email sales@artrevision.com.

Popularity: 3% [?]

One of the small, unknown successes that has come out of SA Rocks is the Flickr group that I set up about 18 months ago.

Here are some quick stats:

There are 3039 photographs in the group.
There are 158 members (including myself) in the group.
The top five contributors are: mallix, Calico182, Debby Champion, andreinafrica and finepixtrix.

Here’s a photograph from each of the top five contributors:

And finally the top four tags in the group are:

southafrica
africa
capetown
ocean

I urge you to go and rummage through the SA Rocks Flickr group. There are some absolutely phenomenal photographs on display. If you really are feeling friendly today you could even post a few of the photos on your blog and link to the photographers Flickr page.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Keep in mind that these photos come from the SA Rocks Flickr Group. These photographers are more than likely not professionals but just love to take photos. I am always stunned and impressed

Popularity: 5% [?]

Trying to keep up with my decision to conduct more interviews and to help out the incredible photographers in the SA Rocks Flickr group, I present to you andreinafrica, AKA Andre van Rooyen:

My start in digital photography came in a roundabout way. I was Googling wallpaper images, and came across an amazing image of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, covered in a layer of cloud, with just the very tops of the towers showing. The photographer was John Curley, of the San Francisco Chronicle, and of Flickr. Following the rabbit-hole led me into the online world of photo-sharing, and suddenly, the digital camera which had *not* been at the top of my to-buy list, was calling my name.

What followed was a mad 3-month dash. Purchase camera (Polaroid i532 PNS), sign-up (Flickr Pro), shoot and post anything that would stand still long enough, discover camera limits, purchase new camera (Fuji S5600 super-zoom), shoot and post anything that would stand still (and some stuff that wouldn’t!), discover more, different camera limits, all the while being inspired by the amazing photographers on Flickr, John Curley, Joe Cantoni, Kristin Hayes, Paul Bruins, Lisa MacDonagh, Deborah Lattimore, and many, many more…

Then, only 2 and half months in, I took a huge deep breath, and purchased yet another new, better, camera (Nikon D40 DSLR)… And suddenly, I was home…

You’ll often hear advice about buying a camera, that goes like this:

Pick it up, handle it, shoot a few, you’ll know what fits right.

Wise words. Handling the D40 felt like a hand, severed at birth, had been re-attached. Overnight I went from searching through my card for images that pleased me, to regularly shooting images that I could sit and stare at for ages… A very happy puppy, I was

That was a little over 17000 D40-images, and 12 months ago. It has been, without a shadow of doubt, the most rewarding, artistic, me-thing, that I’ve ever done. Actually, it’s pretty much the only artistic thing I’ve ever done, and that alone has been a revelation for me.

So, what do I like shooting and why? When I signed up on Flickr, I choose the name ‘andreinafrica’. Flickr has grown exponentially in the last year, by numbers and by countries, but back then the overwhelming majority of Flickr shooters were Americans (or at least it felt that way…). I wanted to show some of *my* Africa. That it is, as good, and as beautiful, as anywhere in the world, and perhaps even better, and more beautiful, if you know where to look

What a ride 2007 has been. The gorgeous places I’ve been, the amazing things I’ve seen, the wonderful people I’ve met. I went pretty much everywhere I could in pursuit of the photo’s I knew would showcase South Africa. The Golden Gate Highlands in January, the Kruger Park in February, the Little Karoo, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Cape Peninsula in April/May, the Waterberg in July, the Bluff in Durban in August, the Pretoria Photomarathon in September, the Expressions of Cape Town exhibition in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town (Yay!),the Cape Peninsula and the Cape Wes-kus in glorious summer, in October. 850-odd Flickr posts. Wow!

Now that it’s a little calmer and I have a workflow, and likes and dislikes sorted and identified, I can say that my first love is seascapes and landscapes, preferably at sunset or sunrise. Wildlife is next on the list, followed by lunar-photography (or lunacy, as the set is named I’m notoriously resistant to people photography, with failures (retirements-in-disgrace, actually) in pretty much any form of people portraiture… Ah well, in another life perhaps

Popularity: 7% [?]

South Africans David Goldblatt and Barry Lategan are among 22 photographers from around the world who will be honoured at the Royal Photographic Society’s prestigious annual awards ceremony in London on Thursday.

Goldblatt and Lategan will be awarded honorary fellowships for their “significant individual achievements and contributions to the art and science of photography.”

About Goldblatt:

Born in Randfontein in 1930, Goldblatt has been documenting the changing political landscape of South Africa for more than five decades. His retrospective exhibition, David Goldblatt 51 Years, has been seen in New York, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Oxford, Brussels, Munich and Johannesburg.

He has won the most prestigious photography prize in the world, The Hasselblad Photography Award. He is the only South African artist to win this prize, and received it at an award ceremony on the 25th November 2006 in Goteberg, Sweden.
About Lategan:

South African born Barry Lategan came to England to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, during which time he was called to national service in Germany, where his interest in photography developed.

He opened a studio in London in 1965, where he took the first photographs of Twiggy, before moving to New York to live and work between 1977 and 1990.

Lategan’s photographs have been published worldwide in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and Life.

Info sourced from sainfo, lensmodern and Goodman-Gallery

Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa.

Popularity: 3% [?]