FOREWORD
My interest in photography began at an early age. My father was an amateur photographer, and, although he gave up his darkroom when I was very young, the enlargers, developing trays and chemicals made a big impression on me.
After completing a three-year BTech Diploma in photography at the Pretoria Technikon, I moved to Cape Town in 2001. I had the impression that there would be lots of overseas and local photographers looking for assistants, and that this would be a great way to gain work experience. After working as an assistant and freelance photographer for a while, I became more involved in the editing and printing side of the photographic process, and started working for a professional photography laboratory in the city. I specialise in large-format photographic printing that combines the traditional darkroom with the technology of modern digital photography. I am able to produce some of the highest-quality photographic prints in South Africa, and I work with a range of artists and photographers from all over the world. Together we print everything from full exhibitions and installations to one-off, limited-edition archival-quality photographs. Even though I do not get much time for my own photography any more, there is nothing else I would rather be doing, and I dread the day when my darkroom and chemicals finally become obsolete.
Since the first time I saw a glass-plate negative, I have been fascinated by the process. The photographers of the past had to have great patience to produce a photograph. Anybody who has ever used an 8 x 10-inch or 4 x 5-inch bellows camera will tell you not only how difficult they are to use, but also that the quality they produce is better than that of most modern digital cameras. I have been trying to buy and build up a collection of glass plates of my own. I go to antique markets and shops and am constantly on the lookout for where I might find more. However, most of the plates I find are badly damaged and faded from poor storage and exposure to light.
Some years ago, while doing research at the Western Cape Archives and Records Service, I came across the most beautifully photographed and best-preserved photographic collections I had ever seen. The quality of these photographs, especially the work of Arthur Elliott, Edward Steer and Thomas Ravenscroft, is on par with the best photographic images produced today. I decided then that I wanted to produce a book showcasing some of these photographs of Cape Town, combined with images of what these landscapes look like today.
Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the backdrop of Table Mountain and the Peninsula make it ideal for such a comparison. In many cases, using the mountain as a reference, it is possible to find almost the exact spot where these old masters of photography set up their large cameras.
Precious few of the photographs and plates in the Archives are dated, but in most cases it was possible to determine more or less when they were taken from where they are in the collections or by comparing them with those that do have dates. Most of the photographs in the book were taken between circa 1880 and circa 1930, although there are a few, like the ones of the Roeland Street jail (now the Western Cape Archives and Records Service), from the 1970s.
After retouching and working with these photographs for years, I enjoy them more than ever, and I hope that every reader will appreciate how fortunate we are to have such a beautiful collection of photographs.
VINCENT ROKITTA VAN GRAAN