Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Photographer gives birth to his life-long passion
A MOMENT every parent looks back on is when their child is born. It’s a proud time and it falls to Neels Kleynhans to capture these moments as the only registered male birth photographer in the country.
Kleynhans, 39, is a selftaught photographer living in Sonstraal Heights, Durbanville. He matriculated from Hentie Cilliers High School in Virginia, Free State, and went on to become a business development manager, despite not having any tertiary qualifications.
“I had been in sales for a long time and then moved to a business development manager’s role from there,” he said.
After many years working in this role, Kleynhans discovered his place in life was behind a camera in 2014, when he met Canadian photographer, Andrea Rees, who was doing community work in the country, teaching women in Khayelitsha how to document events using their smartphones.
Rees saw his potential as a professional photographer, mentored him and bought him his first Nikon camera. Kleynhans then learned the tricks of the trade and now works as a fully fledged freelance photographer.
He said the process had not been easy. “It’s a very difficult trade to get into. You’ve got to ask yourself the question: ‘What makes me different from all the others?’”
Despite being taught by Rees, when it comes to inspiration, Kleynhans looks no further than himself. “You need to create your own style. You need to be you.”
He would have no trouble standing out among other photographers, as no other man in the country is legally registered to do what he does. When asked why he began birth photography, he said: “A friend steered me towards it and I thought, ‘Why not?’ ”
He registered with an international authority on the subject – a website called birthphotographers.com – and left the rest of it up to fate. No one was more surprised than he to discover he had been registered. “I didn’t think it was going to happen ... (but) a fellow photographer approached me one day and she told me I was a registered birth photographer and that was that.”
His work bore fruit this month, when he witnessed couple Christo and Judy Smit deliver their baby, Janke Smit, on Monday, August 6. It was a proud moment and undoubtedly an achievement in Kleynhans’s photography career.
He said he has grown to love his job and plans to continue for as long as he can.
“Photography is a passion. You just don’t walk away from your passion,” he said.
You can find Kleynhans on social media, including Facebook ( NKPhotography), Twitter (@NKPhotographyZA) and Instagram (@ nkphotographyza) or see www.nkphotography.co.za.