Actor Monwabisi Sobitshi at Langa Township, Cape Town, South Africa. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Portrait of a Place: Monwabisi Sobitshi at Langa Township

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I just had to make this portrait of Monwabisi Sobitshi, an extraordinary actor and artist we met when we visited Guga S’thebe Culture, Arts and Empowerment Centre at the township of Langa, Cape Town. When Monwabisi is not teaching drama to school kids and high-school drop-outs, he’s recycling soft drink cans into funky crafts.

Monwabisi spontaneously performed a scene for us from the powerful Fatima Dike play Isandulela, about a frail old gentleman who struggles to get to the voting station on election day 1994, the first election in which South Africa’s blacks were allowed to vote. His raw, passionate, and very real performance brought Lara to tears. I concentrated really hard on making photographs so as not cry. It nearly worked.

If you get to Langa and visit Guga S’thebe, perhaps Monwabisi Sobitshi will perform a scene for you. If he does, do reward Monwabisi for his time and make a donation to the Centre. Better yet, if you know a casting director for film and television, let them know just how dynamic an actor this guy is. That’s what we’ll be doing.

Portrait Details – Monwabisi Sobitshi

Both of these images were taken with my trusty Nikon D700 with my beautiful old portrait lens, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor. The image on the left was more of an environmental portrait so the depth of field was greater – f/5.0, while the close-up was at f/3.5.
The close-up image is one I’m very happy with. The focus is nailed right on his eyes and the depth of field has it falling off quite significantly – you can see that his ears are out of focus. Note that the room had a skylight and I’m using a reflector low and to the right and that it’s created wonderful highlights in his eyes. The blue wall behind him helps create good separation of the subject and the wall.

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AUTHOR BIO

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Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

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