`From Sitting to Selfie: 300 Years of South African Portraits` First Edition, 2014, Softcover

"From Sitting to Selfie: 300 Years of South African Portraits" First Edition, 2014, Softcover

From Sitting to Selfie raised many interesting questions about how and why people make portraits of themselves and others, and how the reasons for this have changed over time. It was a visual feast, a richly textured walk through South African art and social history and an opportunity to come face-to-face with those who peopled our past and share our world.

The exhibition included a broad selection of portraits that record the likeness of particular individuals: William Mellville's Lady Smith (1842), George French Angas' Utimuni, Nephew of Chaka 1(848) and John Centlivres Chase's John David Christian (Captain zu Bersaba) (1843) offer excellent examples of this oevre.

The trajectory of the exhibition moved on to later, more expressive portraits: Gerard Sekoto's Girl with an Orange (1993), Maggie Laubser's Portrait of Kalie (1925) and Dorothy Kay's Cookie: a Portrait of Annie Mavata (1956) gave a real sense of the characters and moods of three very different women.

Moving into the present, the exhibition included photographs by David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo and Mikhael Subotzky and Candice Breitz's video series, Factum, 2010 - images that stretch the bounds of photography, a far cry from many of the mindless selfies piling up in cyberspace.