Orms Photo Art: Featured Artist Martha van der Westhuizen

Photography was one of my art subjects at University. I started working at an architectural firm as a layout artist and photographer before setting up shop as a freelance, also venturing into fashion photography. I got married, moved overseas with my diplomat husband and carried on doing casual portrait photography. Then kids came along and everything was sort of put on hold... Although I continued taking pictures for years, it was only recently that I started sharing them on social platforms.

Probably life around me - whatever I see! The selection is very varied - landscapes, forms, textures, macro and minimalism - the latter is a genre that I started pursuing recently. It is really exciting, influencing the way I look at potential pictures. It is also a subject that I can “control”. Most of my images are devoid of human forms - I think people complicate pictures. Your work is very original, can you tell us something about your creative process.

Thank you for the compliment!

My “creative process” starts visually - I have several daily photographic challenges created by the various closed photographic groups that I have joined - e.g. colours, forms, texture etc., so my mind is consciously and constantly alert to possible subject matter. If the day’s colour is yellow, I see yellow everywhere! When taking the actual photo I try to leave as little as possible to digital manipulation. I love to experiment with the various artistic layers in Photoshop to create more of a decorative and artistic picture. I am careful to use it subtly though. Over-manipulation can easily spoil an image.

The dry protea with its natural monotone look worked very well with what I wanted to achieve. Here the layered effects were created by camera movement, using a tripod and a slow shutter speed – it was very much a case of trial and error!

Have you featured your photography on any other platforms?

Yes, I have created a Facebook Profile - “Martha van der Westhuizen Photography” and as mentioned above joined various closed groups. I also submit work to open social media platforms such as 500px, Pixoto, GuruShots etc.

To develop your skills, did you do formal training or are you self-taught?

Apart from the formal training as a student while studying Information Design, I am pretty much self-taught, acquiring a basic knowledge of Photoshop and Lightroom. Can you describe your work in our collection, in your own way?

The work is a combination of various subjects - flowers, scenery, still life, macro - basically just the nicest pictures I have at a specific time. I think that there might be an overall uniform “feeling” to the collection - most of the images are plain and probably more decorative than editorial.

I try and keep my still life pictures as “clean” as possible. I take a lot of care to eliminate unnecessary elements. Light is very important and I would either wait for the correct light or create some sort of space where I can manipulate the existing light to photograph an item e.g. flower. I don’t have studio lights but it is quite amazing what one can do with a plain backdrop and sufficient light!

It is only recently that my pictures are being noticed and appreciated. It’s a nice feeling to be acknowledged! And of course, I would like to strengthen this. I would like to become technically more skilled and I would like to develop my work to create a kind of own style.