The photographs on this site were made on traditional black and white film emulsions, Kodak Tri X and Ilford HP5, developed in Agfa Rodinal, which is an acutance developer that gives particularly distinctive tonality and good control of the harsh highlights encountered in South Africa.

Rolleiflex cameras from the late 1950's, were used. These twin-lens reflex cameras with Zeiss Planar and Schneider Xenotar lenses, produce a square negative on 6cm roll film. This enables good quality for moderate enlargement. As there is no reflex mirror to flap out of the way of the taking lens, which uses a leaf shutter, Rolleiflex's are near-silent in operation, and particularly non-invasive for portraiture. However, without interchangeable lenses, for close work dioptres must be fitted on the standard lens, and the camera has to be very near the sitter for a full-frame close-up. Portraits by this means cannot be successfully made without a sense of trust.

An important consideration in choosing rather deliberate techniques was the wish to engage with ways of seeing that were closer to those of the photogrpahic pioneers who documented the settler community, than to the instantaneous modes of our own time.

All prints from the project were made by traditional darkroom methods, hand-processed to archival standards on fibre-based paper.