Shooting with the stars

Photographer Rashid Latiff to curate the Duonotone exhibition

PHOTOGRAPHERS draw satisfaction from “capturing the moment” when lighting conditions, composition and action are in sync, forming an image worth celebrating.

The moment often arrives after hours of hunting for a split second when all these elements come together.

Wildlife photographer Rashid Latiff ’s patient eye has been honed from a young age when he learnt to hunt for pictures with his father in Kenya.

Latiff is curator of this year’s Duotone exhibition, the visual component of the annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

“I’ve been taking photos for 40 years. My father was a wildlife photographer. He used to get me up at 3am and take me to a game reserve,” said Latiff.

“We would find a pride of lion, track them and an hour after sunrise we would watch their kill. Then the vultures and hyenas would come to steal the carcasses.

“We followed a pride of 60 to 70 lions. They were huge. We went on car and foot.”

Years later, Latiff moved to South Africa, where his mother had lived in District Six before meeting her Mauritian husband and settling in Kenya.

Latiff became acquainted with Cape Town photographer Shadley Lombard, son of the jazz festival founder, Rashid Lombard.

When he first photographed the jazz festival – which he has done for the past nine years – Latiff was ready to “give up photography”.

“Music photography is one of the hardest to do,” said Latiff.

“You are working with lighting scenarios that are constantly changing. You are shooting in very low light. And the artist isn’t moving slowly.

“You have to be on top of your game to shoot. A photographer has to think about all these variables and deliver an image.”

Latiff said he adapted from thinking like a wildlife photographer and began to understand the challenges that Duotone’s exhibiting shooters faced.

He was asked to curate the work of three jazz festival photographers: Cindy Waxa, Johan Samuels and Gregory Franz.

Latiff said the exhibition’s theme was No Distractions and it was intended to showcase the intimate moments musicians have on stage, as well as platform photographic talent.

“You’ve got jazz festival photographers running around five stages for two days shooting themselves dead,” said Latiff. “They have personal work that they never showcase. This is an exhibition for them to show images that speak to them.”

Latiff said the photographs aimed to entice new audiences to the festival.

“You, as an attendee to a jazz festival, will see an artist from a distance but you will never get so close to be able to see every pimple. These images are going to show you that.

“It will allow you to get up close and personal. You will be able to feel the emotion they feel on stage.

“That’s what everybody wants to experience when they come to see artists. Photography does that.

“Once people see the images of these artists, maybe they would want to see a bit more of an artist and the festival.”

Latiff ’s challenge as curator was to “marry three different photographic styles”.

“Selecting images that flow through the three different styles was a challenge,” he said. “There has to be rhythm between the pictures so you can move freely from one to the next, not get stuck and ask why is this photograph here.”

The festival is also running music photography lectures for students who will get to document the free concert on Greenmarket Square in the city centre before the festival starts.

This is the first year the Duotone exhibition runs outside the jazz festival venue, a move intended to ensure it reaches an audience wider than festival ticket-holders.

Duotone will be at Artscape Theatre from March 29 to April 2.

● The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on April 1 and 2.