The Fairest Cape

I first met André van Rooyen over a pint of Stella at the V & A Waterfront last summer; at a table cluttered with glasses and bottles and about 30 amateur photographers celebrating the opening night of our own exhibition.

André’s breathtaking landscapes had pulled me right into the screen when I first encountered them on the photo-sharing website flickr several months before. His talent is undeniably huge, but what left an even greater impression on me at our face-to-face meeting was his humility. Listening to the self-important chatter of the would-be Ansel Adams’s nearby, the burly man turned to me and shrugged "Ag*, these days photography is so accessible that anyone with a halfway decent camera can take a great photograph."

One look at the images on André (aka andreinafrica)’s photostream on flickr will prove that the man has a true and rare gift that comes from somewhere far deeper than the inner workings of his Nikon.

This ex-Navy man, who lives in Pretoria but is still in love with the Mother City and visits his ‘mistress’ as often as life will allow him, has written a love story to her, in pictures.

The Fairest Cape - "My romance with the light and the seas off the Cape, in images" is not just another coffee table book. It captures and interprets the beauty of the Cape - through the eyes of a devoted lover.

I can’t be effusive enough to do the book credit. The photographs speak for themselves.

Go take a tour of the book at blurb and order it online.

Once you’ve seen the Cape through André’s lens you’ll never look at her in the same way again.

*Ag – the Afrikaans cognate of "oh"

(All images by Andre van Rooyen. Used with kind permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

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