Self-taught artist ventures into portrait photography
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday September 11, 2020 16:14
The young talent’s art aims to show the mood around him through his work.
He started being curious about the world around him at a very tender age. In an interview with Arts & Culture he said growing up, his friends and classmates always talked about how they wanted to be doctors, nurses, police officers and pursue other professions when they grow up. But his dreams were different from theirs. He said he always wanted to make movies.
“I wanted to make movies because of a movie I watched and how it made me feel. I wanted to make people feel the same way I felt when watching that movie. I have always had passion for documenting a moment and conveying the mood and feeling around me. I shoot to sell a feeling; most often I want to make people in and out of Botswana feel an image. I believe my work can compete on the international market,” he said proudly.
Some of his splendid work includes his landscapes series dubbed ‘Hotel Kalahari’ and the latter are long exposure photographs that show the splendor of the night sky. He said his audience was mostly social media consumers because that was where most of his work was found. He added that Batswana has accepted his work as he had great followers from Facebook and Instagram. His work includes high-end fashion, high-end portraits and landscapes.
The young artist sells selective limited prints off his Instagram and Facebook @dudewiththething. He added that he was yet to host his own exhibition before end of this year. Just like other artists, Maglas faces some challenges. He said he observed that their industry (visual arts) was still at its infancy stage adding that Batswana did not buy art as much as one would expect.
However, this lad also has a few achievements he is proud of. For an example, he had travelled the country and across the border a couple of times and got recognition. He also worked with big companies and met a couple of very important people. He pointed out that his biggest achievement was just knowing that he actively contributes to how people view Botswana adding that the better he gets his art, the better Botswana as a whole competes on an international level.