About
The camera is a very complex instrument. And yet it is quite basic in its operation which is founded upon the compendium of three Latin words: camera, lucida, and obscura. Respectively they mean “chamber”, “light”, and “dark”. Essentially, the camera can be defined as an apparatus, or box, holding at one end a plate or film which is sensitised so as to retain the image projected through the lens at the other end.
Photography is the art of utilising the above in order to take a picture, or likeness, by means of the chemical reaction that takes place when light is superimposed on, primarily, a celluloid surface.
And even though photographic technology has developed with rapid strides over the years, what with modern equipment that can cause the average man to squint and gasp for breath, the ancient adage still remains true: “It is not the camera, but the one holding it”. By definition, the most sophisticated and costly camera is quite worthless in the hands of an amateur – a good photograph is not the result of a good camera. Much like a good story of a renowned author cannot be credited to a good typewriter.
Darrell Fraser, photographer per excellence, developed a keen interest in the art of photography many years ago. In fact, her first encounter with a camera transpired at the tender age of fifteen when, quite amusingly, a camera was still an unsightly little square, black box that resembled something like Count Dracula’s undraped sarcophagus. In later years she designed and operated her own little matter-of-fact dark room in the garage of her downtown apartment where, with great enthusiasm, she experimented with the intricacies of old-fangled film development. And over a period of time, ever learning and experimenting, she has established herself as one of the finest, most versatile, and most demanded photographers around, specialising in wedding, portraiture and lifestyle photography.
Darrell is duly registered as a professional photographer with the Photographic Society of South Africa, with quite a few coveted photographic awards to her credit. Through hard work and dedication, with countless hours away from the comforts of her home, she has achieved high honours in the International Photographic Art Company, and in the Africa Photographic Awards she has been awarded third place overall in the Fashion Category, certainly no mean achievement.
She has, in the interim, found it expedient to establish her own fully equipped studio in Pretoria, from where she caters for the photographic needs of her valued clients over a very broad spectrum.
Darrell prides herself in the fact that she also has several celebrity shoots to her credit:
- Comprehensive shoot for Jacob Zuma’s “Black Management Forum”, together with layout design for their magazine
- C.D. cover design and photo shoots for acclaimed local artists Kurt Darren, Danie Niehaus, Nadine Blom, Clive Bruce, Steyn Fourie, A3 Violinist, and Ghappi & Andries among others.
It has indeed become one of Darrell’s distinctive characteristics that a smile of sheer exuberance appears on her face whenever she lifts the view-finder lens of her state of the art camera to her eye. Taking exquisite photographs has not only become a passion, but as significant to her as warring conquests were to great military leaders such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Attila the Hun.
Darrell’s expertise as a professional photographer, combined with her superb aptitude as a graphic designer, can be viewed at:
www.wowstudio.co.za AND www.darrell.co.za
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