Oumou Sangare - Yere faga Music Video

My newest music video for the iconic Malian artist Oumou Sangaré is out. The video takes on a performance driven journey driven by the lyrics of the track Yere Faga, which take into question the challenges of the youth of today. Using herself as a metaphor Oumou sings about her own challenges as a young women in Mali, the discrimination she endured and how she came out victorious through perseverance.

The video was produced by my new French representation Art Bridge (Quad Group), below is a full listing of the crew involved:

Directed By: Chris Saunders (www.chrissaunders.co) 

Directors Assistant: Cassandra Nunan

Performance Choreographer: Andrea Spisto

Executive Producer (Art Bridge): Olivier Bassuet

Executive Producer (Ola Films): Olivia Leitch 

Producer: Elizabeth Dahl

Production Manager: Arthur Maillard (Quad Productions) 

Director Of Photography: Devin Toselli 

1st Camera Assistant: Briony Macleod

Art Director: Adi Koen 

Make Up & Hair: Lyn Kennedy

Shot on Location in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Behind the scenes images shot by Chris Saunders & Andile Phewa

Manthe Ribane - La Vilette Paris

Got a chance to shoot some images with my fellow performing artist Manthe Ribane in Paris this weekend. For the past two years OKZHARP, Manthe and I have been touring together as a trio of performance, music and visuals. Last week we had the chance to perform at both the prestigious La Villette & during the Salone de Mobile in Milan at the Apollo Club. Great and memorable times! Here are some pics to celebrate our mini tour.

Destiny Magazine - August Issue - Main Fashion

PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: L’MRI ERASMUS 

MAKEUP: NTATHO MASHISHI 

HAIR: JAWAD MAPHOTO 

MODEL: HAUWA DAUDA @ ICE MODELS 

FASHION EDITOR: MPUMI SINXOTO

FASHION ASSISTANTS: ASANDA MDA, MPUMI SHANDU, & KATLEGO EDGAR MAGANO LOCATION: WORKSHOP NEWTOWN

EDUN IN HARSH AFRICAN LANDSCAPE

Last year EDUN approached a group of diverse African photographers to interpret their new collections and represent it in their own way. Been one of the Photographers and having an open window to do as I wished with the clothing, I took inspiration from the garments themselves. The outfits reminded me of some of outfits I had been documenting in the different sub-cultures around Johannesburg. Namely the classic Zulu fashion culture 'The Swenka's' and 'Pantsula' the dance culture I have spent years documenting. I wanted to show the uncanny link between selected looks and these cultures attire. Performer Manthe Ribane (and her sister Tebogo) who I had extensive experience working with on my Ghost Diamond Short Film and Dear Ribane Music Video,  interpreted classic poses from both the cultures and transformed them physically on the downtown streets of Johannesburg.

We re-interpretted classic masculine poses from the different sub-cultures and posed the shots in the harsh the South African summer light, not shying away from its encompassing effect. I wanted to keep it as real as possible, maintaining a sense of believability which is often lost in fashion photography, but maintaining the fantasy of the over the top garments. The results are a less than typical aesthetic, poses which reference by-gone showmanship in masculinity shot in reality. 

The images take clothing which is designed in New York, manufactured ethically on the African continent, transported back to the USA and now imagined back in Africa and specifically in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Thank you to Julien Labat, the CEO of EDUN for making this a possibility. 

Credits: 

Photography Chris Saunders

Photographic Assistant Kyle Goulden
2nd Photographic Assistant Lesedi Mothoagae
Producer Jodie Ennik
Styled By Crystal Birch
Make-Up Alex Both

Distruction Boyz Cover Shoot - Bubblegum Club

In the heart of the Durban townships there is a new sound, some know of it others don't but GQOM has been taking over many many ears and hearts these past years. With hundreds of young bedroom / living room producers, anyone with a laptop and Fruity Loops can now make a beat and lay down a track. I originally visited the scene two years ago with my story on GQOM music with Red Bulletin Magazine, taking portraits of artists like DJ Lag, Lusiman and Ben 10. Since then a new more 'commercial' sound has emerged from the deeper, darker GQOM family, 'Sghubu', and Distruction Boyz see themselves as pioneers of this new wave. 

Jamal Nxedlana and I hooked up with them in their home studio in KwaMashu township outside of Durban. 

See the full feature on Bubblegum Club. 

CT 2016 

Bubblegum Club - WTF Cover Shoot

In this post are images from the cover story I shot for Bubblegum Club with WTF. This is my second cover for the new South African online magazine. This time I headed out with a subject less familiar with me in a challenging location. The subject is a music group from Durban called WTF, Witness The Funk. They are a rap crew who coin their genre of music, GQOM-Trap, GQOM been the underground electronic music emerging from the townships outside of Durban and obviously trap been the US hip-hop genre. We shot on location outside of Rosebank Mall, not the easiest of locations, been a sunday in a packed out shopping centre, but we managed to find some good spots out and around. 

Read the full article on the Bubblegum Club. 

CT 2016 

Vogue Online - Easter Sunday

    

On Easter Sunday Vogue Magazine Online commissioned me to head out and capture a photo story on what style looks like on Easter Sunday in South Africa. I started to narrow down what I wanted to capture and was on the way to shoot a different project down in Durban, South Africa's east coast sub-tropical city. The city is known to have a mass migration of people from different inland regions during the mass of long weekends which surround the easter period in South Africa. I wanted to try capture two main elements of the Easter celebrations. Firstly the traditional Christian churches which down to the beach at sunrise for mass, praising out over the ocean in their uniformed robes which differentiate the wings of the religion they believe in. While doing this I came across some zulu traditional healers who where performing a ritual of some sort on the beach with a chicken, after they where done I asked to shoot portraits of some of the healers which they gladly agreed to.

My second stop after the beach was to head into 'Point', a section of Durban city which mostly has other African immigrants living within it. We visited two congolese churches in the area, one of them I had to stand up in front of a full congregation and introduce myself, the priest then sent forth a cue of women who I photographed during the proceedings while he commented on the shots in Congolese French. The experience was a small reflection of the multicultural city centre of Durban around this celebratory occasion. 

See the full photo story on Vogue Online. 

CT 2016

Sunday Times FW - MBFW 2016 - Street Style

So one of my new permanent missions is a retainer with South Africa's Sunday Times Fashion Weekly supplement which is SA's biggest newspaper. The Fashion Weekly comes with the Lifestyle section of the paper. They have given me free rain with the camera and I will be capturing South African street style and fashion culture. Our next mission is capture the different folks hanging at this years Outland Festival in Mooiriver KZN and after that I will be hitting SA Fashion Week again in Johannesburg (We have two fashion weeks in Johannesburg). 

With this post is a selection of images from some of the super stylish people hanging out around Sandton Square at this years extravaganza, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2016 / Johannesburg. 

I have included a few more images on the blog for those who didn't make it into the print issue this previous Sunday. Unfortunately we can only fit so many in a spread. 

(Image above of menswear designer Zamaswazy) 

CT 2016 

Aart 

 

     Alyssa Cole wearing Selfie

 

          Anna-belle durrant                                                                 Brian Lehang

 

       Dimitra Alex                                                                          Dimo kutama

  

 

                  Gareth Pon                                                              Gisele human  

 

 

 Ines  cuatrecasas                                                         Jamal Nxedlana & Anita Makgetla 

 

           

              Logan Rodriguez                                                          Lwazi Soga 

 

                   Mbizo                                                                             Mpumelelo 

 

 

 Nontando Mposo & Sibusiso Mahone                                   Sibusiso Malete

 

                 Siya Fonds                                                              Thabiso Skhosana

                      The Suit Collective                                                              Thebe

           Thubellhle                                                                  Sibusiso Yanta

  

 

            Tokelo Motsepe                                              Trevor Stuurman & Gareth Pon

    

                             

                              Tyron Sweeney                                            Zele Angelides & Lo Makandal