Anton Momberg—Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Photo Anton Momberg Port Elizabeth, South Africa by Peter Glendinning Anton Momberg—Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Originai in color, < Glendinning. 1999, Peter 187 188Fourth Genre This portrait is from a series I made in SouthAfrica in 1999. It came about as a result of coUaboration with students and staff of die Technikon Pretoria, the Technikon Port EUzabeth, and the Free State Technikon, where I had been invited to teach professional practices as a visiting artist. "Technikons" are institutions ofhigher learning in South Africa whose focus is different from a traditional university. Awarding both diploma, bachelor, and master degrees, the educational experience they provide is more narrowly centered on the professional aspects of the discipfines (ranging from agriculture through the arts and sciences), rather than taking a general educationbased approach such as that found at an institution Uke Michigan State University. Since technikon photography students have an intensive immersion experience in their field, I knew I could count on them to have a level ofsophistication and technical expertise that would be unusual in a typical university student. I proposed that we engage in a coUaboration. Students e-mafled me prior to my visit, proposing potential portrait subjects who, to their minds, typified some archetype of South African citizenry. From farm laborer to artist, to prison guard, to the mayor ofPretoria, we considered a wide range ofpossibflities, and settled on a plan for the portrait series that I would create as I moved from city to city during my visit. Through the words of those talented SouthAfrican students, an image ofthe people ofthat diverse nation came through to me so clearly that I was eager to get to work. My trip was sponsored in part by Calumet Photographic, a purveyor of photo equipment and exclusive distributor of the Hosemaster Turbofilter. The "Turbo" is a device that controls an array of spinning soft-focus filters positioned in front of the camera lens. It aUows me to synchronize the filters with sophisticated strobe lighting of the kind usually found in photo studios. Having used the Turbo for carefully planned creative advertising and magazine illustration purposes, for both studio stiU life and portrait photography, I was particularly interested in testing my creative abilities with the device "on location." With people and environments that would not be familiar, my goal was to be sensitive enough to construct a response to the "meaning" of each person—to create an environmental portrait that was an interpretation and a "true" response at the same time. The fact that at the time I visited South Africa there was only one other Turbo in the country, in a successful photo studio, made the challenge even more appealing. Calumet was nice enough to donate the Turbo I used on the trip to the Technikon Pretoria, so students in its program wiU benefit in the future. Photo Essay189 I was most excited to meet and create a portrait ofAnton Momberg. Anton is a world renowned sculptor whose work has been exhibited widely and whose commissions are found in many major cities and in both pubUc and private coUections. I met him at his home and studio in a forest just outside of Port EUzabeth, where he hosted a traditional South African hrai, a barbecue /party featuring the finest produce of South Africa's farms and vineyards. The occasion for the party was a "send-off" for me at the end of my trip to the PE Technikon, and there were students and faculty and some local artists in attendance. We decided to create his portrait in his studio, and my initial incUnation was to have him pose by his workbench where there were not only a lot ofinteresting tools but a beautiful maquette of a proposed monumental sculpture of Mohandus Ghandi. We set up the Ughts and chose an appropriate camera angle, and were just ready to shoot a test Polaroid of one ofmy student assistants when the artist walked in to see what we were up to. As anyone who has traveled to South Africa wiU attest, there are few people on earth who are more hospitable, friendly, and convivial than South Africans. As host of this party for a feUow artist from the United States whom he had not even met until that evening, Anton was upholding the nation's reputation in fine form. He was intent on making sure that everyone was having a good time. I suspect that his wander into the sculpture studio at that moment was motivated partly by curiosity about our progress and partly by his concern that his guest of honor was far too soberly and seriously involved with being a portraitist to be enjoying himself. When I suggested that we were about ready to make his portrait, and that I thought it would be a good idea to pose him near the place where he worked, he fairly shouted as he exclaimed, " This is not where I work!"Within a second he had leaped from the floor up onto a table, on which was perched a chair, where he immediately plopped himself down. As he put one leg up on the modeUng stand and gazed at his sculpture in progress, he declared in his booming voice, "This is where I work! I must confront my subject." The quick look and gestures I made to my assistants resulted in the instantaneous takedown of our carefuUy crafted Ughting setup, and decisions were made as to how best to iUuminate the magnificent pose my subject hadjust struck. In my approach to portraiture, the picture cannot be complete without the vigorous coUaboration of the subject, and Anton was reveaUng so much about his persona and his artistic achievement that I was fairly stunned. ReaUzing that the mood of contemplative creation that Anton had suddenly and almost UteraUy melted into might not last more than a moment, I tried to buy some time and responded, "WeU, you confront your subject, 190Fourth Genre and I am going to move to confront mine!" I use the Turbofilter because it aUows me to carefuUy design the Ught, in effect to UteraUy draw with it as one would with colored pencils or chalk. In any part ofthe picture area, the effect of the light may be made sharp and direct, while in other parts an almost ethereal softness may be produced. As I vary the levels of sharpness and softness in the light and manipulate color in the scene by the use of "gels" (colored filters) over the lamps, the light not only illuminates the scene but creates real content as weU. If the collaboration between subject and artist is successful, and the technical gremlins don't interfere, that content rings true and binds the elements ofthe picture into a unified statement that can turn a simple photograph into a richly revealing portrayal. The strikingly intense concentration, the confidence, and the creative genius that are the essence ofthis great artist were so beautififlly in evidence that I knew I would have to "draw" my picture with the same passion and the same rapid response that he had contributed. Choosing a soft "sunriselight " colored gel for the background lamps and aUowing its color to mix through a long time-exposure with the illumination from the work lamp over the Ghandi maquette, I created a warmth that I hoped would relate to the "dawn" of creative possibilities his tools and work table evidenced. By setting a sharply focused spotlight effect for the lamp that would rake in across both the surface ofthe figurative sculpture and the expressive gesture ofAnton's body, I hoped to pay homage to the intensity of the experience of the artist at work. In less than a minute the lighting had been rearranged, and in a few minutes more the Turbo was in place. By this time Anton was deeply meditating on the creative problem his sculpture represented, and I was able to squeeze off a few images. Just as suddenly as he had leaped onto the table and into his chair, andjust as I had shot this last picture, Anton shot straight up and jumped to the floor, declaring, "Enough work!" Needless to say, the rest of the evening was an enjoyable one, made the more so by the knowledge that I had just coUaborated with a person who had trusted me with a revelation not often or easily shared. Together we had made a portrait that was true, one that holds a revelation of both form and content through a process ofdrawing with light that I still find very exciting. L· ...