Sabine van Lagen

SABINE VAN LAGEN, BY LLOYD POLLAK

Sabine van Lagen is a young Dutch photographer who studied in Tilburg in the Netherlands. She was initially drawn to South Africa through online imagery. Although Sabine is Dutch, her South African oeuvre fails to indicate this. Dutch seascapes are predominantly the product of a very different, far more wintry climate and the tonality is largely formed by the dark and light shades of the brown and grey overcast skies, haze, mists and fogs relieved by the sparkling silvery quality of the rare sunlit clouds, waves, reflections and highlights. Her only South African photograph true to the Netherlandish tradition is 'Morning Drift', a purely tonal painting in which the only colors are light brown, silver and black. Solidity dissolves in the background where the dunes become insubstantial and flattened as they blur into each other and finally dissolve into the sky. It is a sullen, moody piece enlivened only by the movement of the waves, the silhouettes of the surfers and the solitary bird in flight. Sobriety and restraint are its keynotes.

By comparison photographs, like 'Ocean Ease', are a blaze of color. The clarity seems absolute and we gaze far into the distance right to the horizon line without any loss of focus. The slow and gentle lapping of the waves hardly disturb the overwhelming peace and instill a mood of serene calm where the viewer feels completely at one with nature. Apart from this there is no motion: the fronds of the palm trees remain stock-still as does the boat at anchor. Although the photograh is static it is galvanized by the intense saturated blue of the sea and sky which makes it spring into vibrant life. There is nothing artful about the composition. It seems so fresh and spontaneous that we are convinced this is how Sabine saw the scene at first glance. 

INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, SLIM AARONS

Sabine acknowledges one liberating influence in the evolution of her new style, that of the American photographer Slim Aarons who often photographed the lavish homes of celebrities. The similarity between 'Cotton Bay' and many of Sabine’s compositions is obvious. Both artists favour a strictly centralized frontal approach, balance, symmetry, sharp focus, long distance views and an emphasis on blue waters. 

Sabine casts her nets wide and paints a variety of different coastal scenes. They divide into pure seascapes – wide panoramic views of ocean and coast with little or no interference from shipping or humanity like 'Golden Cape' and 'Hazy Sundown' both of which are shot from a viewpoint high above the landscape to avoid overlap. They reveal the artist’s affection for subtle effects of blur, glare and haze which contrast with the exactitude and clarity of the foreground features.

The second category are beach scenes like 'Cold Plunge' which depicts one of Cape Town's cult Tidal Pool swimming spots at 'Saunder's beach', in all its glory. This image portrays bathers occupying far smaller tracts of the beach which they exploit as an amenity for their leisure and pleasure. Such images are by their very nature crowded and busy with no focal point so the eye wanders restlessly over the surface from rock to rock and figure to figure creating an impression of vitality, animation and enjoyment.

The admirably crisp and clean-cut 'Dive' is yet another chromatic accord of white and blue set off by the brown of the anatomies. This an impeccably constructed composition of bold verticals, emphatic horizontals and a few diagonals round the paving of the three pools. The standing figures, the row of umbrellas, the structure of the diving board, the pools, the two rows of railings and the horizon line hold every element firmly in place. Here Sabine introduces a note of drama otherwise absent in this exhibition. The image is tense with expectancy and suspense, holding the onlookers spellbound. The diver is poised, ready and about to take his plunge and the onlookers wait eagerly to see the outcome.

But then there are other sights that Sabine simply could not resist, and one is the geological splendours of Cape Town’s craggy mountain ranges as seen in 'Cape Cove'. She adopts a vertical format in this photograph of the vast towering mass of Signal Hill. All the hectic activity and movement of the crowded bathers at the base of the image is dispelled by the peace, calm and harmony of the noble summit outlined against a bright blue sky. It is a contrast between the eternal, as embodied in the dizzying heights, and the evanescence of the lively human activity below.

The sombre, looming presence seen in 'Leeukop' is stamped with the same iconic grandeur. It is wreathed at base by a pinkish mist which adds a touch of mystery to the dark, glowering masses above it illuminated by the setting sun against a pale sky. There is a feeling of spiritual ascent, a sense of uplift and release into a timeless realm. In mythology the mountains were the abodes of the gods and something divine seems to cling to the rocky anfractuosities of Sabine’s many photographs of the majestic twelve apostles like her magnificent Table Mountain in 'Blush'.

Some of Sabine’s most exquisite images are her simplest, most radical and single-minded. Apart from the yacht in 'Atlantic Shimmer', the rest of the photograph is handled like a color field painting with luminous diamantine gems of high wattage silvery whites shimmering on a gauzy bed of luminous blues. This highly original photograph is all sparkle, reflection, light and jewel-like colour.'Crystal Calm' is handled similarly as an almost abstract composition glistening with magical blues and white highlights. Despite the fact that both photographs are so stripped down and minimal, they make a powerful chromatic and aesthetic statement that is completely satisfactory in itself.

Colour seems to be Sabine’s forte and in 'Liquid Gold' it attains its maximal impact. The gold of the sunset seems as bright as molten golden ore and it retains all its fiery intensity as the eye travels over the picture surface. The painting is a tripartite composition divided into three horizontal rectangles stacked one on top of the other. First there is the sky with a shadowy branch dramatically silhouetted against the blaze of gold. Then there is a stretch of sea descending into a barrier of rock and seaweed. Finally, in the foreground, there is a tranquil pool where two silhouetted children stand heedless of the luminary wonders that surround them.