Maureen Odubeng
3 April 2008
The National Museum will next week be hosting a rare but interesting exhibition of photographs by veteran photographers Sandy Grant and Phil Sandick.
The exhibition, billed to officially open on April 8, is titled "Other Sides"- An exploration of boundaries.
Grant will be exhibiting a total of 36 photographs some of which have been previously published and long forgotten, while others will be on public display for the first time. All those who have seen Grant's exquisite photographs will no doubt agree that they somewhat give a visual history of Botswana, dating from the 60s.
He has quite a number of photographs, which specifically tell a story about the culture of Batswana, which some people believe is gradually disappearing. Among the pictures is that of Mophato man rounding up cattle, a picture which to many might not immediately mean much until they have read a little more about the history of the country and its previous cultural practices. In the olden days, the responsibility of rounding up matimela cattle (stray cattle) was vested in the chief who would pick a mophato (regiment) for the operation. Nowadays the rounding up of stray cattle by mephato has been transferred to councils.
Taken in 1971, this particular photograph probably shows the last rounding up of cattle by mophato. Another picture shows young males undergoing bogwera (initiation ceremony). In a nutshell, the 36 photographs on display will be on sale, and orders can be made for reprints.
Grant has been in the field of photography for many decades now. While in the United Kingdom (UK) his interest was in taking photographs of people and their portraits, historic buildings and sometimes landscapes. He stayed in different countries around the world, but he took special interest in photography while working in the then southern Cameroon in 1960/61, and afterwards in London where he photographed many of its 17th Century churches.
He also toured various parts of the UK, photographing its abbeys and churches. Grant has been in Botswana since 1963 and his interest in photography has not waned any little bit.
He credits a certain South African/Canadian photojournalist called Struan Robertson with fine-tuning his talent in photography. "It was Robertson who persuaded me to get a better camera, set up a darkroom and to take better photos," says Grant.
He also said in his view, Robertson by far took the best portraits of Sir Seretse Khama. Other places where Grant took pictures include India, which he visited in 1968, concentrating more on its wealth of historic architecture, and when studying in Edinburgh, Scotland, he photographed his way around the great Border abbeys and northern castles.
In addition, Grant took all the photographs in the 1998 publication, Decorated Home in Botswana, which he jointly authored with his wife, Elinah, and also in the two smaller publications, People of Mochudi and Mochudi Around the Time of Independence.
Over the years, he has also provided illustrations for a variety of local publications, being the National Development Plans, Kutlwano (magazine), Marung, school textbooks and local newspapers.
Grant has so far held four photographic exhibitions, two at the Botswana National Museum and two others at the Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi.
The exhibitions were on Historic Buildings (1980), Bogwera (1982), Just People (1985), and Decorated Homes (1998).
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