Tracey Derrick at Okha
by Sue Nepgen
In the street-facing window of an upmarket furniture boutique, Tracey Derrick strategically placed photographs of her dog Salvador. Titled 'Her and Me', the show celebrated Derrick's relationship with Salvador on her travels and projects, the pairing moving through beach, floral and desert landscapes, as well as the cultural milieus of a Zionist Baptist and a Namibian Himba scene, the one as photographer, the other as subject. Exhibited as an integral part of the Vision photography festival, Derrick's pictures cleverly aroused interest amongst passers-by.
The image of a dog is an accessible and popular subject, her choice of locations an invitation to view the rest of the exhibition. Once inside, an explanatory board eloquently described Salvador's inclusion in Derrick's life and work over the last ten years, how she and her dog have been inseparable. Derrick regards these pictures as a tribute to Salvador and their continuous relationship. Besides being a constant in her work and its imagery, this homage to Salvador is also about the "love, bravery, integrity, fun, loyalty, the ever-present moment of now" that the dog has taught her.
Tracey Derrick is internationally recognised for her photographs of sex workers, African Zionist and Sangoma ceremonies, as well as refugees living in Cape Town. This exhibition would thus seem unusual, especially in its personal content, but nonetheless still manages to reference her previous projects, their locations. What may appear, at first, as a frivolous subject for a photographic exhibition, gains weight through its serious treatment.
Salvador is shown engaging energetically with the world around her, mainly in the context of landscapes. As with photographs exhibited before, Derrick uses particular methods to achieve the fine resolution and tonal contrasts, which add authenticity and visual appeal to the content. Her Canon with its manual focus, her use of slow film and fast speed, intuitive measurement of light and careful hand development result in prints which reflect a truth to life as seen and experienced by the photographer.
As with all of her work, the photographs are uncropped, with the frame of the film outlining her chosen scene. The pictures of landscapes are distinguished by their clarity and depth of field, as well as by balanced composition. This is formed through contrasting natural features as well as variation in tones and textures. Salvador occupies a small fraction of the vistas, giving scale to the natural scenes belonging to Derrick's visual experience.
In some instances, the subjects of Derrick's social documentary works people the landscapes. A photograph from her widely exhibited and published project on sex workers in Cape Town (1998), shows four transvestites lounging in the foreground of a vast stretch of beach, with Salvador between them, running with a stick in his mouth. His forward-propelled energy contrasts with their horizontal mode; the dark tones of the figures, dog and seaweed contrast with the lightness of sand and sky. The latter are separated by the mid-tones of sea on the left and dunes on the right, converging at the vanishing point. The tiny figures in the distance and the scuffles in the sand in the foreground emphasise the vastness of the beach.
Together this adds poignancy to an attitude of assertive ownership as the sex workers claim their right to lie on the beach. Salvador's antics introduce a light-hearted element, as well as demonstrating her role as unprejudiced participant in events. The result is a scene of riveting interest, supported by visual appeal.
In most scenes from Derrick's social documentary work shown here, the landscape is not the dominant feature. The focus is on the people, and these are sensitively portrayed in their relationship to the dog, through composition or content. In the photograph of Mozambican refugees in their soccer outfits, we see Salvador bringing pleasure to these marginalized people, through her unconditional and playful interactions.
Derrick's joy in her companion is demonstrated in close-up photographs of Salvador in action taken over the years and in a variety of situations. Her professional eye for detail captures the dog's curiosity, instinctiveness, energy and playfulness. An early photograph of Salvador (1993) shows the dog jumping high in front of a tree trunk. She is just a blur of movement in contrast to the trunk's clear shape, textures and lines. De Waal Park stretches into the distance behind. In other close-up photographs, the dog is shown in sharp focus in a captured moment of activity or stillness.
The photographs do not leave one without questions, like where are the photographs of the hard times? Or are those difficulties implicit in the type of projects in which Derrick has been involved in before, and therefore understood? In selecting her pictures and writing the text for this exhibition, Derrick gives the theme of her relationship with Salvador the same serious consideration as her social documentary work, elevating an otherwise mundane subject.
Opens: March 20
Closes: April 14
Sue Nepgen is a student of Art Criticism, currently studying her Masters in Education at the University of Cape Town. Tracey Derrick's photographs were exhibited at Okha, 186 Loop Street, Cape Town.
