When World Press Photo project manager Jurre Janssen started talking to me at the World Press Photo Awards days in Amsterdam in May last year about bringing the World Press Photo exhibition to South Africa I was keen to help. After all South Africa had taken the top prize! Jodi Bieber had won the World Press Photo of the year award for her powerful image of Bibi Aisha, the young Afghan woman who had been disfigured for leaving her abusive husband.
Being away in North America for June and July I could not do much beside connect Jurre to contacts we have in museums and galleries in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town. Upon my return I chased some ideas myself but nothing seemed to be coming together as all seemed to be booked up. So it was with great delight that I received an invite to the opening of the exhibition at the Castle in Cape Town. A referral to Iziko Museums of Cape Town seemed to have born fruit in Iziko’s 2012 exhibition season and World Press Photo had managed to get Investec Bank on board as sponsors! In fact, it is one of the last stops the exhibition would make in the world with the announcement today of the 2012 World Press Photo Awards.
I happened to be in Cape Town on leave with my family at the time so off we went to the exhibition opening and managed to connect with so many friends in the photographic community – Eric Miller, Julian Goldswain, George Hallet, Mike Hutchings, Chris Ledochowski, Dominique Le Roux, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Nikki Rixon, Samantha Reinders, Simone Scholtz, Alexia Webster as well as Jodi Bieber herself and World Press Photo Director Michiel Munneke and of course Jurre Janssen!
The exhibition runs to February 16. See details.
