The Ghoema awards is an independent annual event that celebrates and honours the best in Afrikaans music for all achievements. All artists from all genres, singing in Afrikaans get celebrated and awarded for their contribution to Afrikaans music and the growth of its kind.
The 2016 Ghoema awards were held at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg CBD, and all the attendants dressed to the T.
We made a small studio setup next to the press area, and selected artists were summoned for their portraits which I wanted to take in a very classic, clean and elegant style.
Artists who attended were for example Karlien van Jaarsveld, Elvis Blue, Carike Keuzenkamp – such a veteran in Afrikaans music and such a lady, gospel singer Retief Burger, Nicholis Louw and his beautiful wife, Ray Dylan, Nadia Beukes, Cheree and Wynand Strydom, Juanita du Plessis, and the husky singer Francois van Coke, who walked away with various awards. It was a privilege to photograph them all.
Inspired by the shoots Mark Seliger does every year with the Vanity Fair afterparty, I wanted to have a simple set-up, where the focus would only be on the artists.
I wanted only one big octabox for lighting, as soft as possible, and an elegant couch and some chairs were the only furniture used.
It was wonderful to work under a sort of pressure, only having a few seconds with each artists, and trying to change up the pose each time.
The Ghoema Awards made for the who’s who in Afrikaans music to get together for one star-studded evening, where waves were made the previous year in a proud genre of Afrikaans culture, its music.
I had two brilliant assistants for the evening, – two photographers themselves, Nico Vermeulen and Ferdi du Toit, who helped my sevely in changing up the scenery quickly, and looking for anything such as a button undone.
The tradition of images for the Ghoemas would hopefully be continued again next year.
Yolandi Jacobsz, Specialized Photographer
https://www.imgrum.net/media/1267252591092732255_816579515
https://www.imgrum.net/media/1244039468643268914_28445781