Forgotten pioneer photographer rediscovered after antique shop find

Sara Buijskes spent decades photographing Johannesburg residents and almost 40 years working from a studio at the top of the Barbican building in the city centre. She earned international recognition for her portraits, but her name and much of her work later faded from South Africa’s photographic history.

Her story might have remained obscure had Michael de Nobrega not opened a drawer while browsing in an antique shop in Mossel Bay and found close to 200 large format black-and-white photographs. Unsure who had taken them but struck by their quality, he bought the collection and began searching for the photographer.

“We would have been none the wiser if it were not for the guy in the antique shop,” said photographic historian Carol Hardijzer. “She would probably have disappeared into the background without the due acknowledgement.”

The discovery prompted Hardijzer and De Nobrega to reconstruct the career of a photographer who had worked in Johannesburg for decades. Buijskes began as an assistant in the studio of Robinson Christian Engelstoft Nissen, where she initially developed and printed photographs in the darkroom. Hardijzer’s research found Nissen recognised her ability and gave her the opportunity to work behind the camera.

(Our City ) From 1931, Buijskes operated from the top floor of the Barbican, an early Art Deco landmark opposite the Johannesburg City Hall. The building stood neglected and largely empty for years before Italian businessman Michele Ciani acquired it and worked with architect Brian McKechnie on its recent restoration and reopening.

Hardijzer said Buijskes’ surviving portraits reveal an exceptionally skilled studio photographer with a rare understanding of light. “She was such an immensely good photographer. She could play around with light. Very few photographers could do that at the time.”

According to newspaper interviews uncovered during Hardijzer’s research, Buijskes studied the light falling across the faces of fellow passengers while travelling by tram and tried to recreate those effects in her studio.

Much of her commercial work would have included wedding portraits. Hardijzer said, unlike today, when photographers generally travel to churches, venues and parks, wedding couples in Buijskes’ time often went to the photographer’s studio.

Though she is likely to have produced many wedding photographs, Hardijzer is yet to find any. He hopes more of her work remains in private family collections and will eventually surface.

Despite her talent, Buijskes was largely forgotten. Hardijzer believes this reflected the limited value once attached to photography and the sexism facing women in the profession.

His research into a 1957 newspaper interview found Buijskes spoke about the public’s uncertainty over whether a woman could work behind the camera and said she had needed to be thick-skinned to survive. “Female photographers were not acknowledged at the time. I think it was the sexism of those years, just not acknowledging the female,” Hardijzer said.

However, there were men who recognised her ability and helped her career. Nissen gave her an early opportunity, while artist Erich Mayer encouraged her to believe in her work and enter international competitions.

The recovery of Buijskes’ story has coincided with the revival of the Barbican, which was completed in 1931 and recently reopened after years of severe neglect. It now houses Bridge Books, a fashion academy and offices, while its restored top floor occupies the space where Buijskes once worked.

For Kathy Munro, from the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, the building’s importance extends beyond its architecture. “Heritage is not only about buildings. It is also about the life of those buildings and the people who passed through them.”

Hardijzer said photographic heritage was particularly vulnerable because images were frequently discarded before anyone considered the information they contained. “People throw away pictures wherever I go. People tell me, ‘You should have come last year before we put it in the bin’.”

Even photographs of unidentified people can preserve valuable details about buildings, clothing, transport, toys, animals and everyday life. “There’s so much hidden in photographs. All those types of things contain valuable information.”

Munro said preserving heritage was not about resisting change or attempting to save everything. “It’s not about nostalgia,” she said. “It’s about the importance of giving the past the respect that it deserves and preserving that information.”

• This story is produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom serving the people of Johannesburg.