Karel Prinsloo exhibits his Rehoboth work at the Goethe Centre
Through the lens of acclaimed photographer, Karel Prinsloo, the Rehoboth community comes to life in these striking, emotive monochrome images capturing the ordinary mundame existence of rural communities. It is Prinsloo’s intention to systematically capture all Namibian communities on film.
Prinsloo started his career as a young, self-taught but keen photographer at the Republikein newspaper more than twenty years ago. Following in the footsteps of leading photographers like John Liebenberg, Prinsloo discovered his niche early in his career, focussing on conflict and social distress. This week Wednesday, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy, Ulrich Kinne, opened Karel Prinsloo’s “Homeward Bound” photographic exhibition in the Goethe Centre auditorium. The next day, Prinsloo gave a public talk on “Photography in War and Crisis”, his favourite domain. He hopes to kindle the same interest in photography among a younger generation of photographers, that he displayed as a young inexperienced news photographer. Prinsloo is a Namibian-born, award winning photographer who has been working mainly in Africa for over twenty years. He has covered several conflicts and wars, both in Africa as well as the Middle East and has been based in Nairobi for nearly a decade as the Associated Press’s Chief Photographer for East Africa. His numerous accolades include South African Photographer of the Year as well as the second price news stories of the World Press Photo Awards in 2000 for his coverage of the devastating Mozambique floods.
The exhibition at the Goethe Centre shows his latest work on the Rehoboth Baster Community. The pictures are the first part of a series with which Prinsloo hopes to document all Namibian communities and showcase a view of Namibia in contrast with those pictures that are usually associated with this country.
Photo Exhibition “Homeward Bound”
Goethe Centre
Fidel Castro Street, Windhoek
06 May to
29 May 2015
