Ausie photographer Andrew Bell captures the Swenkas
Ok, so this week I’m being inspired by The Swenkas – those amazing fellas with more dash than cash… And in my trawlings I came across more than a few international photographers who have travelled to Africa to capture their spirit… One such individual is Australian photographer Andrew Bell, who came to South Africa and specifically Soweto (around 2004) to take the above series of photographs…
One face keeps cropping up all the time in the imagery of the Swenkas (photograph 4) and it would appear that he’s sort of a main protagonist in this crew based on the trailer of the film by Jeppe Ronde – not entirely sure who he is but he strikes me as a leader-type-figure and he’s certainly very debonair. Mind you the dude rocking the mafiosa-stripe combo in image 3 is also pretty fab – I mean if you were to describe that pairing to yourself you’d be thinking: “no f*@$%ing way!” but then you see the photograph and you’re like: “oh, ok I get it, maybe not to my taste… But ok, I get it.”
Now the other funny thing is that when you start looking for something obscure and below the radar of popular culture, all of a sudden you realise it’s not so obscure at all… In fact I found a clip on YouTube of an clip ad that from 2009… So cool but the kind of reference that would have no doubt been lost on a number of people at that time. Maybe we can encourage a revival of it – I mean how is that tartan and teal lined combo and those socks???? LOOOVE the socks!!!
Browse Timeline
- « The Swenkas – All about our very own inspiring African dandies…
- » A diminutive “sapeur” steps out in style.
