Evolution Of A Cover: Joburg Zen

The cover for Joburg Zen is taken from a photo by legendary photographer Oscar Gutierrez. Mr Gutierrez was kind enough to allow me to use the original image, snapped outside a place called Ba Pita in Yeoville, back in the early 1990s when he’d first arrived on African soil.

Ba Pita was a local hangout in Yeoville and the photo is taken right at the moment when Yeoville’s about to transform from a hotbed of anti-apartheid activism into one of the world’s most dangerous slums.

The artwork itself was then edited by pixel-kid extraordinaire Mark Haylock (whose work is better known in the videogame industry for crafting the keyart of numerous AAA-titles), and then made into a cover by the same artist who did the cover for Ciao, Amore, Ciao, Joe Montgomery.

Watching those guys work is always a, erm … salubrious experience! There’s something magical in watching pros turn what exists only in your own head into something real and tangible. But in truth, it’s more than that. Pros seem able to read your intent rather than your narrow vision and come up with what you always wanted — but never had the ability to even conceive.

As for Oscar himself, the man has had quite a life and career. The photo used for Joburg Zen was snapped shortly after he’d arrived in South Africa to cover the 1994 elections. Forty years later, he’s still there and has become arguably Joburg’s greatest chronicler. It’s probably a book all of its own.

His work — such as The Last Night at Baselin — has been published globally, and his images have been featured in major international outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

You can learn more in this segment on his life broadcast by the SABC.

I’m grateful to be able to sit and watch these artists work and create, and I couldn’t be prouder of the keyart for Joburg Zen. I just hope the words inside the cover match up to their work. …