Appeared With A Trace.

My copy of Trace Magazine arrived today, a weird coincidence. I was uncertain of what I was seeing online, but I had a hunch that I knew the screaming mouth, shown on the contributors page, to the left. There was little more that I could see on the low-res version, but when the magazine finally arrived, not only was I on the page (as usual, talking more than anyone else) but it was confirmed that the mouth belonged to Lolo... or rather, Nontsikelelo Veleko, a photographer I had met years ago in Johannesburg. What made it all the more interesting was that she was just about to hold her first solo exhibition, Mute!Scream!Mute!, opening Thursday July 19th at the Goodman Gallery... three weeks to the day after my first solo in Jozi at the Rooke. Small world.

Anyway, here's the text that ran on me in the contributor's section; strange how with so much having happened since January, and a radical reworking of my views on art and the idea of a "document" having taken place since my exhibition, that so much of this still holds true... windgat as some of it may be. Blame it on Supersonic:

'Photographer, proud dad and java-lover Liam Lynch shot this month's feature on South African musician, Vusi Mahlasela. The former journalism and political science major found his calling while documenting student riots and racial clashes on campus at Technikon Pretoria, South Africa. Since then, Liam has turned more towards documentary photography, not just as a career, but also as a way of understanding the world around him, and expressing himself in relation to it. An avid writer, he prefers the title "storyteller" to artist. His work has appeared in South Africa GQ, Marie Claire and Time. Catch his musings on music and life at: liamlynchphotographer.blogspot.com.

What path led to your current work?: I did a variety of socio-documentary work while working as assistant to Omar Badsha, a South African legend in the field. For all the social issues I dealt with, it was my music work that caused him to point out that I was getting something that other's couldn't. Feeling validated, I took it from passion to obsession.

Where do you find inspiration?: South African photographers like John Hogg, whose photographs first made me realize that "ideal images" of music could be made here. Journalists like Rebecca Kahn, whose love for South African music is a driving force, not least of which is seeing her cry while Vusi Mahlasela headlines Oppikoppi [music festival]... but South African music will do that to you.

Style is... owning it, whether its what you wear or what you do, whether its created, borrowed or stolen; making it so "you", it can never be anyone else's. Like an [Annie] Liebovitz homage or the Gallagher brothers from Oasis. That's style.' - Trace Magazine

Oh, and remember, updates are to be found at the bottom of this post.

Later.