UK-born Cape Town photographer Ed Suter worked for a long time in the film industry before going to study photography at the London College of Printing. In the UK he has worked as an on-set photographer for BBC and Channel 4. In South Africa where he now lives, he has photographed in a few different fields (with David Beckham, for example) and now additionally works as a designer using his images on a range of homeware products.
Suter’s new book Sharp Sharp – South Africa Street Style takes readers on a journey into South Africa`s urban hinterland, uncovering the pulse of Jozi, Cape Town and Durban’s street fashion and art.
Is Sharp Sharp your first book?
Yes. It was a project that I worked on as a hobby for a few years, shooting images that interested me and building up a collection. I used some of the graphic images of menus and signs on a range of placemats and got such a great response that I thought I might be on to something. I started shooting street fashion for a magazine at the same time. After about 3 years I thought I had quite a collection and approached the publishers with them. It was a very quick process – from the day I approached them to holding a finished copy of Sharp Sharp was one year.
What was the motivation behind the book, what did you want readers to know or learn?
The motivation only became clear later on in the process – I saw it as a celebration of the individual and individual talents. There are so many books celebrating the beauty of SA landscapes and wild animals etc but nothing that really shared my enthusiasm for the cities, especially the downtown. I am more interested in the downtown streets than shopping malls and manufactured public spaces. I think the book was me just saying, “look around you, there is all this colour, humor, art and design on our doorstep.” I have found that when you photograph something like a typical menu or mural promoting local fizzy drinks and take it out of its context, people stop and admire the beauty of it which they may have missed when they walk passed it every day.
In the book you mention 70s American street photography as having an influence on your work. How so?
Well, I really like that quote I used. I understand that process of seeing things and immediately wanting to photograph them to see them how they look as images. I can be visually greedy – there are some streets I went to where there was so much all around me I just wanted to shoot , shoot, shoot but had to sort of restrain myself and just look first. I wasn’t inspired by the 70s street photographs in the sense that they captured fly on the wall moments of street life – I wanted the people I photographed to co-operate with me and be part of the photo taking process. There are very few pictures of people that were unaware they were being photographed. I wanted people to put their best foot forward and show themselves off a bit rather than capture them unaware. So in that sense I was indeed influenced by the style of 70s street photography in America.
Elsewhere you also mention that you would love seeing graphic design students with a copy of Sharp Sharp in their hands. Do u think graphic design colleges are omitting something in relaying a uniquely South African approach to graphic design, as depicted in your book?
You know I really don’t know about that. I imagine that everything that is taught on graphic design courses is computer-based and what I loved about the graphics I photographed was that it is all done by hand. It’s not always perfect but has great character and humor. Seeing signwriters doing their craft was very inspiring, the one signwriter I work with quite closely says he has never been approached by a young person to teach him or her the trade so it’s a skill that may not be around for ever. What I meant by that quote was I wanted the size of the book to be the right size so that students could take it to college. I didn’t want Sharp Sharp to be a big hard cover coffee table book but a well thumbed book of inspiration.
You work with big brand ad campaigns. Do u use what u discovered in voyage making Sharp Sharp into these campaigns, or do you leave it aside in your work?
I think the reason I get asked to do some of that work is to bring that same Sharp Sharp style of photography to their images. I have some very exciting projects on the go with a major retailer adapting Sharp Sharp style photography to their needs. As a photographer I get asked to shoot so many different things – last week I was shooting skin creams in a studio – but I love that the work I enjoy doing as personal projects is now becoming the work clients ask me for.
The pictorial imagery is intercepted by quotes from the book`s subjects…the clothes dressers,the graffiti and signwriters. Why did you include these?
I wanted to “hear” their voices too – I also think the pictures need a bit of breathing space which the quotes provide, break up the pages of images a bit. Plus some of them are so articulate – Rasty, faith47 and Freddy Sam all have such a great way with words , it only adds to their art. I am always interested in hearing articulate people so I loved that we found so many and they gave the pictures some context.
How do you foresee the future of commercial and art photography in Africa,and particularly for Cape Town?
Everything is changing, the way photographs are requested, the way they are sold. I think you have got to stick to what you do and try not to get too distracted! Everyone is a photographer these days. I think photography is a huge tent and there is always room for more inside that tent if you bring a particular world view or mind set and not just another iPhone photo of a sunset. So I’m optimistic that like the return to an interest in craft, there is a return to a specific photographers and their skills rather than just using stock imagery. I’m not sure but I’m optimistic. Art photography is a tough sell – because everyone takes pictures, getting patrons to spend a lot of money on a photograph (unless you are one of a handful of world names) is difficult. Cape Town ! Well, swing a cat and you hit a photographer here! There will always be a lot of photographers here – what is great is seeing projects of love by CT photographers finding their way to the book shops like Sharp Sharp and the recent Bicycle Portraits books. No matter how publishing changes, nothing beats having a beautiful book of images printed on great paper in your hands.
Go to Ed Suter’s official site for more information.
Suter’s new book Sharp Sharp – South Africa Street Style takes readers on a journey into South Africa`s urban hinterland, uncovering the pulse of Jozi, Cape Town and Durban’s street fashion and art.
Is Sharp Sharp your first book?
Yes. It was a project that I worked on as a hobby for a few years, shooting images that interested me and building up a collection. I used some of the graphic images of menus and signs on a range of placemats and got such a great response that I thought I might be on to something. I started shooting street fashion for a magazine at the same time. After about 3 years I thought I had quite a collection and approached the publishers with them. It was a very quick process – from the day I approached them to holding a finished copy of Sharp Sharp was one year.
What was the motivation behind the book, what did you want readers to know or learn?
The motivation only became clear later on in the process – I saw it as a celebration of the individual and individual talents. There are so many books celebrating the beauty of SA landscapes and wild animals etc but nothing that really shared my enthusiasm for the cities, especially the downtown. I am more interested in the downtown streets than shopping malls and manufactured public spaces. I think the book was me just saying, “look around you, there is all this colour, humor, art and design on our doorstep.” I have found that when you photograph something like a typical menu or mural promoting local fizzy drinks and take it out of its context, people stop and admire the beauty of it which they may have missed when they walk passed it every day.
In the book you mention 70s American street photography as having an influence on your work. How so?
Well, I really like that quote I used. I understand that process of seeing things and immediately wanting to photograph them to see them how they look as images. I can be visually greedy – there are some streets I went to where there was so much all around me I just wanted to shoot , shoot, shoot but had to sort of restrain myself and just look first. I wasn’t inspired by the 70s street photographs in the sense that they captured fly on the wall moments of street life – I wanted the people I photographed to co-operate with me and be part of the photo taking process. There are very few pictures of people that were unaware they were being photographed. I wanted people to put their best foot forward and show themselves off a bit rather than capture them unaware. So in that sense I was indeed influenced by the style of 70s street photography in America.
Elsewhere you also mention that you would love seeing graphic design students with a copy of Sharp Sharp in their hands. Do u think graphic design colleges are omitting something in relaying a uniquely South African approach to graphic design, as depicted in your book?
You know I really don’t know about that. I imagine that everything that is taught on graphic design courses is computer-based and what I loved about the graphics I photographed was that it is all done by hand. It’s not always perfect but has great character and humor. Seeing signwriters doing their craft was very inspiring, the one signwriter I work with quite closely says he has never been approached by a young person to teach him or her the trade so it’s a skill that may not be around for ever. What I meant by that quote was I wanted the size of the book to be the right size so that students could take it to college. I didn’t want Sharp Sharp to be a big hard cover coffee table book but a well thumbed book of inspiration.
You work with big brand ad campaigns. Do u use what u discovered in voyage making Sharp Sharp into these campaigns, or do you leave it aside in your work?
I think the reason I get asked to do some of that work is to bring that same Sharp Sharp style of photography to their images. I have some very exciting projects on the go with a major retailer adapting Sharp Sharp style photography to their needs. As a photographer I get asked to shoot so many different things – last week I was shooting skin creams in a studio – but I love that the work I enjoy doing as personal projects is now becoming the work clients ask me for.
The pictorial imagery is intercepted by quotes from the book`s subjects…the clothes dressers,the graffiti and signwriters. Why did you include these?
I wanted to “hear” their voices too – I also think the pictures need a bit of breathing space which the quotes provide, break up the pages of images a bit. Plus some of them are so articulate – Rasty, faith47 and Freddy Sam all have such a great way with words , it only adds to their art. I am always interested in hearing articulate people so I loved that we found so many and they gave the pictures some context.
How do you foresee the future of commercial and art photography in Africa,and particularly for Cape Town?
Everything is changing, the way photographs are requested, the way they are sold. I think you have got to stick to what you do and try not to get too distracted! Everyone is a photographer these days. I think photography is a huge tent and there is always room for more inside that tent if you bring a particular world view or mind set and not just another iPhone photo of a sunset. So I’m optimistic that like the return to an interest in craft, there is a return to a specific photographers and their skills rather than just using stock imagery. I’m not sure but I’m optimistic. Art photography is a tough sell – because everyone takes pictures, getting patrons to spend a lot of money on a photograph (unless you are one of a handful of world names) is difficult. Cape Town ! Well, swing a cat and you hit a photographer here! There will always be a lot of photographers here – what is great is seeing projects of love by CT photographers finding their way to the book shops like Sharp Sharp and the recent Bicycle Portraits books. No matter how publishing changes, nothing beats having a beautiful book of images printed on great paper in your hands.
Go to Ed Suter’s official site for more information.
