Barrydale goes old-school as photo festival returns

PHOTOGRAPHERS from all corners of the country will be heading to the Klein Karoo between 10 and 20 December for the second Barrydale Analog Photography Festival.

The brainchild of former Cape Town studio owner, Graham Abbott, the festival aims to showcase the best of South Africa’s Analog photography community while inspiring the next gene- ration of Analog photographers.

The inaugural event highlighted just how popular the art of printing photos the traditional way, still is.

What made last year’s event such a huge success was the vast collection of internationally acclaimed prints on display.

This included work by Roger Ballan, David Goldblatt and Obie Oberholzer, and was complimented by workshops that proved to be both educational and entertaining.

“During this year’s festival there will again be wet-plate photography workshops hosted by Nolan Lister, fashion and figure study workshops by Anton Robert and movie nights where film and film photography will take centre stage,” Abbott confirmed.

An entertaining festival element this year is a History Of Photography Exhibition, where ca-meras used over the last century will be displayed in a local haunted house – Die Spookhuis.

“A camera obscura lens will be built into one of the rooms at the Die Spookhuis, where you will be able to see the world upside down, as if you are standing inside a camera,” Abbott explained.

For the younger generation wanting to learn the art of developing photos, a fully kitted darkroom will be set up in Die Spookhuis.

“The hope is that festival goers will shoot during this 10-day festival, and then learn how to develop the film while they are in Barrydale.”

Towards the end of the festival, many of the collectable photographic works will go on auction at a masked ball that is set to take place on December 18th.

During the opening weekend, Gavin Furlonge from Cape Town’s Gallery F will be doing a talk on the Collectability of Analog Art at an exhibition of the work of Billy Monk.

Another exhibition confirmed for this year’s event includes a Pierre Crocquet exhibition, curated by Heidie Erdman of the Erdman Gallery in Cape Town. (By Mickey Mentz of News62)