Finding stillness in a note

Jonathon Rees's images are a soulful visual tribute to South African jazz

- Lesego Chepape

At this year's National Arts Festival in Makhanda, I stumbled upon a quiet revelation in the Monument — a photographic exhibition titled Stillness, where images of jazz musicians mid-performance stood suspended in time — full of intensity, intimacy and grace.

The photographer behind them is Jonathon Rees. He might not be a household name in the South African art world just yet but his debut solo exhibition made a powerful case for the visual possibilities of live music.

Rees's portraits are stark, focused and emotionally charged; they don't just capture musicians playing music. They distil a moment of devotion, a flicker of transcendence, the quiet just before the applause.

The photographs feel like jazz itself — improvisational yet studied, free yet focused.

What makes his work all the more remarkable is that Rees is not a full-time photographer. He came to photography and to jazz as an outsider. And perhaps that's exactly why his perspective is so refreshing.

When I spoke to him, he began, quite unexpectedly, with journalism.

"I studied journalism and history at Rhodes University," he told me. "It was at the festival actually, late at night, in a smoky bar, that I discovered jazz. It absolutely moved me."

This was in the 1980s, during apartheid. Rees remembers the jazz venues of that time as some of the only truly integrated spaces.

"It was mixed, but authentically mixed. It just felt natural - it felt like the world we wanted."

And maybe that's the thread running through his work - the longing for unity, beauty and presence.

Although he had always taken photographs, Rees never considered himself a professional. It wasn't until 2016, when he attended the farewell concert of Max Luner, a young jazz drummer and the son of a friend, that something shifted.