Another find of photographs in a drawer at an antique shop has contributed to the reconstruction of a significant historical narrative around a little-known female photographer whose work has not received the recognition it deserves in South Africa.
Sara Buijskes as a young woman by unknown photographer (Circa 1900s). Her sister Maud, who later became her assistant in the Barbican studio would have been too young to capture this photograph.
On researching her, it quickly became evident that hardly any publicly documented information existed on her. The intention of the article is therefore to add to the knowledge base of not only early female photographers in South Africa but also South African photographic history in general.
Michael, the co-author of this article, was “scratching” around in an antique shop in Mosselbay in the Western Cape when he stumbled upon almost two hundred large format black and white photographs tucked away in the shop. He had the sense that this was a significant find and bought the entire batch there and then.
At the time he did not know who the photographer was, but the uniqueness of the images justified him buying the batch. Sufficiently curious to determine who the photographer was...
