Biography

Krisjan Rossouw grew up and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a self- taught fine art photographer with no formal art or photographic training. Since he took up professional photography in 2009, local and international collectors have bought his work.

He took up an apprenticeship with a large printing company after school. “Up until that point it was the closest I’ve been to being creative,” he says. A few years later he was cast as an extra in a TV commercial, which introduced him to Cape Town's fashion, film and commercials industry. This led to a series of fashion and commercial industry- related jobs, first as a model driver and chaperone, and then as a model booker, which was when he made friends with the models he photographs today.

His photography career began when his mother bought him a camera. “It was a matter of trial and error. I had no photographic lighting or equipment other than the camera, so my style developed from having to use what lighting there was –bedside lamps, fluorescent tubes – and working out a way to layer their different qualities to be able to make something new and original,” he remembers.

Rossouw works with a Nikon D5000 and the basic lens that came with the camera; no tripod, no ‘photographic’ lighting. He explains, “ It’s ironic that when I could finally afford professional studio lights, the images simply did not look the same to me. I haven’t used them since that first time.”