“It all started on a horse carriage in Central Park, NY, with my friend, the fabulous Suzette Main. We were driving past this beautiful building, and Sue commented, saying that it was exactly what Camps Bay should look like. Turned out, she had bought a building on a strip in Camps Bay, and asked me to make a suggestion for its designing. One thing led to another and within a few months, I found myself in Camps Bay, working on this project with her.

The Grand Café on Camps Bay opened its doors, and many happy evenings were spent on the balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, sipping sparkling wine. One of those nights, on my way home I found myself in the midst of a roadblock. I won’t go into detail, but I spent a night in jail and appeared in front of the local magistrate soon after.  It was a bit of a “gedoente.” With the help of a good attorney and a magistrate with a vision, I was condemned to community service. My attorney and I somehow managed to convince the magistrate that instead of washing buses or cleaning public toilets, I should rather do community service that would make a positive contribution to people’s lives. I suggested that I wanted to do a photography program with street kids — a project I had always wanted to do, but maybe I just needed a little motivation.

The program was proposed and accepted by Twilight Children, and their social worker assigned a group of 15 boys to me. We met every Monday afternoon from 2 to 5 pm on the shelter’s premises. Each lesson was divided into an hour of theory, followed by 2 hours of practical/field work. I have succeeded if every kid is now able to tell a story with his photos – his own — if I can make him feel worthy of sharing it with the world, visually documenting his stories, his observations, his hopes and dreams.”