Verbal.

Willem de Lange has started a project looking at emerging farmers in South Africa.

Since the end of Apartheid, many white owned farms have been given back to the people who originally owned the land. The problem currently being faced is a lack of support and training to new farmers, often resulting in farm land going to waste.

Your Emerging Farmers project, how did this come about?

The subject is a very sensitive one, with white farmers who have to sell their land to make the farm available to people who, mostly, have no idea of farming. The land was taken from them in the Apartheid years, so it’s actually only fair that they get their land back. At the same time, climate changes and population becoming more and more, our food sources are becoming more and more under pressure. The Emerging Farmers are the ones who may be able to provide food for their community…IF they can farm.
At the moment they can’t farm. They don’t have capital for farming equipment. They don’t have knowledge. They don’t have business, administration skills. And the government wants more of the farms to be handed over to “emerging farmers”. So the risk is high and the action, on the ground, is slow…

Are you concentrating on any given geographic location, or will this be a country-wide project?

I am only covering a few farmers in the Eastern Cape. I think the Eastern Cape probably offers the “worst case scenario”. I live in Port Elizabeth, so it makes it easier.

How long did you spend with each person?

Half a day..?
The project is still pretty much unfunded…I am looking for funding…and as soon as I do, I’ll be able to really hang around them for long periods of time.

You mention that the farmers don’t receive the necessary government support, is there a reason for this that you are aware of?

The farmers say that the government is dragging its feet…

Can you tell me a bit about your photographic background?

Studied Civil Engineering after I left school. Did National Service of two years and then, after one year in Civil Engineering, I resigned and started studying photography at the then, Pretoria Technikon.

I started working for the SA Communication Service (now GCIS) the week after I finished studying. There I worked for the Panorama Magazine, which, at the time, was a very respected magazine. I then went on to work for National Magazines (Media 24) where I worked for Sarie, Fair Lady, Women’s Value, Drum, True Love, Huisgenoot, You. I went on my own in 1995 and have worked for most, if not all of, Caxton’s Magazines, Johnnic Magazines (now Avusa), Mafube Publishing, Carpe Diem Media, etc.

Editorial photography has been good to me since it exposed me to any-and-everything. From fashion to food, cars to covers, celebrities,
etc. I have also done four food books for Clover. I never thought I would be shooting food, but my food photography evolved and today I love any food assignment. I consider myself to be a good all-rounder but my first love is still “photography with significance”.

Documentary photography is now my main aim, and I hope to build a satisfying career from this.

Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to
violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.
(Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States)

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