All the World’s a Stage for South Africa’s Jaco Fourie

Though his four years of shooting make him somewhat of a neophyte to the business, Pretoria, South African photographer Jaco Fourie’s careful study via the Internet has fueled his inspiration to learn and has shown him how to produce pictures equal to those of established professionals. Even more impressive is his elaborate, content-rich website that shows a diverse business plan many veterans would admire.

“The Internet changed my style,” Fourie says. “It influenced me in a big way. I saw what the guys overseas were doing and I wanted to do what they do.”

The guys in this case were photographers James Hodgins (www.hodgins
photography.com) and Robert Provencher (www.westmountphotography.com), two Canadians who have a forum on the Internet (www.nobsphotosuccess.com/NoBsWorld/ubbthreads.php). Fourie participated in their forum, which helped show him a pathway into wedding photography when he was able to get little help from other professionals.

Further inspiration was taken from far-flung wedding photographers such as Jim Garner (www.jgarnerphoto.com) and David Beckstead (www.davidbeck
stead.com) in the United States and Jerry Ghionis (www.jerryghionisphotography.com) in Australia.

When he started out, still photography was initially the passion of Fourie’s wife, Daleen. He was experienced at video editing, so when asked by an aunt to put together a wedding video from stills, Fourie borrowed a still camera to shoot his own pictures instead of waiting for the photos of the official photographer. “At that stage we didn’t know what we were doing,” Fourie says of his photography collaboration with his wife. “We were just fooling around.”

As the wedding began, there was an eruption of smoke and fire as the hired photographer’s strobe ignited. In desperation the photographer asked Fourie to take over. “I told my wife, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose. Just go for it,’ ” he says, as the two of them proceeded to cover the event. “She put the camera on the ‘Green Monster’ (automatic settings) and we went to work.” When the pictures turned out well, he was encouraged by his brother to think seriously about photography. “You’ve got talent. You should take this further,” his brother told him.

To understand the basics of still photography, Fourie did some training with a local South African photographer. “Then the bug bit me,” he says. “It was passion from the word go.”

At this point the power of the Internet came into play, allowing Fourie to see the best wedding photography in the world and learn from the outstanding pictures. Initially, he was stunned by what he saw. “I was dumbstruck,” he says, describing the quality of photography in the market today. The pictures on the Web inspired him to learn everything he could about his new passion. Of the most influential pros for him is Jerry Ghionis, named by American Photo magazine as one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world.

Today Fourie does what he calls “free-style” photography, which could be thought of as free of any one discipline, but including the spontaneity of photojournalism with a mix of arranged portraits and posed wedding pictures as needed. “I believe a wedding is made up of all these components,” he says. He attributes his talent as a photographer to a strong belief in God, one that inspires him to show weddings as the religious events they often are, a celebration blending two lives into one. At the heart of it are pictures that grab a viewer’s attention. “I want to make pictures look glamorous, but natural and very dramatic.”

The effort is paying off nicely. Fourie was recently honored with 11 Fuji awards, the only competition he participates in at this point in his young career. The previous year he received seven such awards.

Having been the inspiration for his start in photography, Fourie’s wife continues to be a key component with regard to everything he does in business. During weddings Fourie usually works with her as an additional photographer and assistant. She continues to operate the studio side of their business from home, something she has done for the last three years.
Speaking of the business climate, Fourie says, “Photography is a luxury and that is where people cut first.” While his business continues to grow, being in photography in South Africa presents its own set of problems as great as those of small businesses anywhere. The impact of the exchange rate for cameras alone is heart-stopping. Fourie estimates U.S. photographers might have to shoot one or two weddings to afford a top-of-the-line camera. Since he is paid in the South African rand (a 7:1 ratio to equal the dollar), he might have to shoot five to seven jobs to buy the same camera.

Fortunately some photographers like Fourie are that willing to invest in themselves. That considered, last year he did a workshop in Paris with Ghionis at considerable personal expense. However, what Fourie learned about photography—and himself—he brought straight back to his business.

“I knew I had a bit of a weakness in my photography,” Fourie says as he went into the workshop. His photographic strong suit has been as a technical photographer. He wanted to extend his ability to bring forth more feeling from his subjects. “I struggled to have the couple get into each other, to show emotion.” Working with Ghionis turned him around. “I knew I had to get more emotion into my images. I feel that now I’ve changed that to have the couple look more romantic.”

As part of his service to a wedding couple, Fourie has a session to take their engagement picture. From this he creates business cards of the couple for distribution at the wedding. Because the picture on the cards is of the couple getting married, these become small keepsakes for the family and friends. They also help spur new business.

These engagement sessions are folded into the cost of the wedding coverage. More important than charging for this time, Fourie wants to get to know the couple and vice versa. “I have to sell them something they cannot see,” he says, for couples can never know what his pictures of them will look like. He can only show what he has done for others. The time spent doing the engagement pictures is the test of their chemistry together.

“People ask, ‘Why should we choose you?’ ” Fourie says. “I tell them first off, because of the imagery. And then they need to gel with me as a person. I’m very laid back. I tend to calm brides down on the wedding day.”

If things do not go well in the engagement session, Fourie is willing to have the couple select another photographer. He regularly tells couples that if they want to choose someone else after the engagement pictures, he will refund his fee without question. This approach has worked well for him. “To date, I’ve never had to give anyone their money back,” he says.
Looking at Fourie’s online portfolio, some of the magic of photographing weddings in South Africa becomes apparent. A portrait in the wedding gallery on his website shows a bride with an adult African elephant in the background. Other pictures show the couple arriving at the ceremony on the back of an elephant. In this case the groom worked on a game farm that imports and exports wildlife. Elephant safaris are a regular part of the business, which made it possible for the couple’s very special arrival on this occasion.

“Using wild animals and children is very unpredictable,” Fourie admitted, as they sometimes spontaneously create their own agenda. In the case of the bride riding the elephant, the animal suddenly decided it was hungry. “The elephant got a hold of a tree trunk and broke off a branch. The branch fell on the handler and almost killed him,” Fourie says.

As interesting as such pictures are for those who live far from the exotica of Africa, Fourie prefers to avoid such devices. “It’s a little gimmicky at this stage, so we try not to use them,” he says.

Though somewhat new to the business, Fourie has done well getting noticed overseas. His elaborate, cleanly designed website (www.jdphotography.co.za) is popular with couples who have emigrated overseas and return to South Africa to get married. In addition, relatives of wedding couples in South Africa find him and book his services. When they return to their adopted homes they take his photographs with them, bringing more eyes to his work.
Fourie’s development of a separate wedding book business has added to his overseas presence. Called Furi Fine Art Books, this business was created to produce the kind of wedding albums he wanted to offer his couples. He now sells these internationally to other photographers. He chose the slight modification of his last name for the company he says because, “My American friends could not say FUR-ie.”

The books are custom made and can be leather bound. Fourie follows the couple’s wishes in the book’s final design. His book samples definitely get the attention of his couples, who often upgrade their arrangement with him to receive an album. “I want the couple to be proud and take that book and show it to everybody, not put it in the cupboard somewhere because they didn’t like the layout,” he says.

When covering a wedding, Fourie and his wife commit an entire day to one couple, starting at about 11 a.m. and working until 10 p.m. or so. He starts with the groom and groomsmen as they dress, making time to get them walking down the road in a Reservoir Dogs-style picture. “We’ve all done that shot, but they like it,” he says.

Then he’s off to cover the bride, adhering to his own strict standards of what looks good, i.e., no hair curlers and only the last finishing touches of makeup on the bride. He photographs jewelry only once it is being worn by the bride, “so it does not look fake.” In the process he makes sure he gets the full-length picture of the bride, showing the dress and train, knowing, “Mom wants this one for the wall.”

Then it is off to the wedding and reception, right up to the dancing. At this point Fourie breaks away with the couple for some portraits and night photography, allowing him to use some off-camera flash techniques for which he has become known, or to try something using video lights, smoke or a fan to blow the veil out behind the bride.

Giving this much time to one couple ensures he has the time to make the pictures he wants. “I don’t want to spoil their day and get them to watch the clock,” Fourie says.

His favorite moments are when the couples come to his studio so he can present the results. He projects the pictures for their review, complete with music on a surround sound system. “That just blows them away. They just sit there and cry,” he says. “For me, it’s the satisfaction of having people enjoy the images.”

While building his own skills and business, Fourie has started to spread new standards to South African wedding and portrait photography though an online forum and an association where photographers can meet and exchange ideas. “It’s a bit of the Wild West,” he says of the South African scene, with some photographers still using “Just Married” written on the side of a suitcase as a picture prop. He hopes to contribute to an effort to educate the public as to what to look for in a wedding photographer.

His efforts are paying off. Other photographers are starting to notice his work, paying special attention to his off-camera flash skills. When some of Fourie’s recent pictures were posted, the host of the FlashFlavor website (https://flashflavor.com/blog/post/355) says, “This South African photographer has one outside-the-box creative vision… He continues to challenge the creative edge and is delivering some killer stuff.”
With his continued success on the Web, Fourie anticipates the opportunity to continue bringing new standards to his country and have his work seen worldwide.

Jim McNay is a California-based teacher and writer. He was the first college instructor to receive the summer fellowship in the National Geographic photography department. He is a past president of NPPA and writes regularly for the Sports Shooter website (www.sportsshooter.com) with the intention of helping emerging photographers break into the profession.