Date: 19 September 2026, (10:00 -17:00)
Presenters: Nicky Newman
Address: Fairweather House, 31 Francis Street, corner Nelson Street, Woodstock
Date: 19 September 2026, (10:00 -17:00)
Presenter: Nicky Newman
Address: Fairweather House, 31 Francis Street (corner Nelson St), Woodstock
Following the success of last year’s event, photographer Nicky Newman once again opens her studio to the public for a special one-day Open Studio. Featuring historical works from her archive, photographs from her acclaimed series A Place of Water, and a programme of digital slide presentations, the event offers a rare opportunity to step inside the artist’s creative workspace and experience the engine room of her photographic practice.
Description:
The Four Kings is a photographic project documenting a single oak tree with four trunks in Kongeeikene. Estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old, the tree was photographed over the course of a year.
Now at the height of its life, it may, under favourable conditions, endure for centuries more, yet it already bears visible signs of wear. The causes remain uncertain, but this project does not seek a scientific explanation. Instead, it takes the tree as a visual and existential point of departure.
“For many years, I have regarded this tree as an extraordinary natural presence. Since 2018, I have consciously turned to subjects that I believe carry significance for the future – forms that embody beauty, vulnerability, and complexity.”The Four Kings is both a tribute and a quiet warning. It documents the tree as an artwork in itself, while also suggesting a longer temporal arc in which it may come to reflect our own relationship to – and destruction of – the natural world. The tree remains still as its surroundings shift. In this, it becomes both witness and mirror.
Festival Director:
Heidi Erdmann info@capetownphotofest.co.za
Festival Coordinator:
Alexandra Martinez
Marketing:
Gina Ten Zeldam Ganswyk: gina@purplepine.co.za
Web Design:
EIE Productions: dylan@eieproductions.net
