When the lens sings

Vuyo Giba speaks about archiving South Africa's jazz legacy through black-and-white photography and reflects on Feya Faku's death

- Rolland Simpi Motaung

Atmospheric: Vuyo Giba's image of the late trumpeter Feya Faku at the Mandela Bay Jazz Legacy Festival this year.

(Photo: VuyoGiba)

In the arts, there are various ways to capture a moment in time and space.

Some capture it in movement, others in words, some in sound and others in brush strokes. For Vuyo Giba, photography is her artform of choice to narrate jazz stories through her mighty lens.

After being invited to a musical event in 2012, Giba felt a deep desire to tell people what they were missing out on.

"I knew that writing alone wouldn't satisfy what the eye sees, and then I got a camera; it could have been a week later, and I never looked back," she says.

Giba's work distinctively captures the rural and township life of black communities in black and white. What makes her stand out, however, is her vested interest in capturing and archiving South African jazz musicians and live music.

"Jazz is quite under-documented in South Africa; one needs to bridge the gap and make sure archives are available for future references," Giba says.

A former resident photographer at Niki's Jazz Lounge and The Orbit Jazz Club in Johannesburg for over eight years, Giba argues that when she photographs musicians, it goes beyond capturing faces or instruments.

"I'm trying to hold the spirit of that union, the energy that connects them and the emotion that travels through sound into image."

Though Giba gives praise to Pierre Crocquet's work which inspired her to tell visual stories in black and white, it is the music and observing musicians that mostly shaped her photography skills.

"I started learning the musicians. So, instead of concentrating on one person, I look at the union of gifts on stage. The many people that are there with one goal only — to bring about the sound, the music, and in so many cases, the healing.