All posts by Hendrik Mentz

My goal is to take one or two iconic photographs of the Karoo and Overberg

I started a photographic club at almost every school at which I taught. At the end of my career, as a member of the Communication Directorate I became, by default, the unofficial official photographer for the Western Cape Education Department. Now retired, my goal is to spend a year in the Karoo learning how to take one or two iconic photographs of the Karoo as almost none of these representational Karoo shots speak to me. This blog is part of that aim.

Continue reading My goal is to take one or two iconic photographs of the Karoo and Overberg

Camus, on the heart

I have spent ten years winning something which I find priceless: a heart free of bitterness

(Albert Camus quoted in ‘The Heart of Albert Camus’ in Watson, Steven (2012:174). The Music in the Ice. Penguin, Cape Town

What price heritage in Higgo Vale?

At the top of Higgo Road (1 Higgo Rd), just below Kloof Neck Rd is a heritage cottage similar to the one I restored and in which I am living, which is being allowed to disintegrate to the point, I assume, that the developers, who purchased the semi-detached cottages from the Dennis family, can argue for its demolition in order to replace it with a palatial structure similar to most of the other houses recently built in Higgo Vale, and that now fetch well over R10M a piece.
Note. This is a place-holder for my theme: Higgo Vale then and now which will explore heritage vs development.

Writers who help me make sense of my world

My concerns are a deadness consuming our planet, and tyranny. I believe the two are related, in that at their core is the human species, you and I. Deadness and tyranny take many forms but come about mainly because I disassociate by failing to own the actions that flow from who I am, and for what I stand. Consequently I live entirely in my head, being unable to feel anything. The extracts quoted below speak in their individual ways to these themes.

Continue reading Writers who help me make sense of my world