PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Happily ensconced in the supremely tranquil Nature's Valley, Obie and Lynn welcome me with warm smiles. Lynn is buzzing around the kitchen, cooking up a storm, joining Obie and me sporadically while we sip coffee in the sun.
It's here where Obie Oberholzer, world-renowned photographer and all-round hoot, regales me with tales of his illustrious career both behind the camera lens and the steering wheel of whichever vehicle carried him across the African continent.
Despite his incredible photographical feats, Obie couldn't be humbler and more understated about his achievements.
I ask the man, hailed by those in the know for painting with light, where and how it all began. He explains that his mother saw both his aptitude and penchant as an artist when he was a young boy, and promptly placed him under the tutelage of Alice Mertens.
Munich
After studying graphic design at Stellenbosch University, this German photographic lecturer encouraged the gifted Obie to attend one of the only two photography schools in the world at the time, so he settled in Munich, where he honed his craft.
He shares with me that it was his dream at the time to be a war photographer. His eyes dance as he tells me how he met and chewed the fat with Sir Donald McCullin CBE, a British photographer fresh from the bloodied shores of Vietnam.
This is but one of his many extraordinary relationships forged with fellow extraordinary artists and entrepreneurs over the years.
Face in the sand
I marvel as Obie shows me one of his proudest compilations of photos and anecdotes from his journey across South Africa, spanning 1977 to 2021, titled The Happysadland.
It is in this incredible book that Obie introduces us to his "fellow traveller", the face in the sand.
Of him, the alter ego, Obie writes, "I am like you, my passing friend, dappled by the light of contradictions, on roads that bring beauty and unease, shimmering brightness and sinister shadows. Running with the blood and dust through our veins, we are the wild and restless spirits of happy sadness."
Then there are other more humorous stories of being chased by bulls and encountering critters with all manner of attitude. Wild takes indeed.
Various sponsors over the years afforded Obie fantastic opportunities to capture rare images on film from every corner of the globe.
Our chat is interspersed with the kind of quotes that make me chuckle on the inside. "Freedom is a layer of dust on your dashboard. In Africa, your best companion is a sense of humour. There's a lot of living in a tank of diesel. The price of diesel stubs my creativity. I am dead when my dust settles."
There simply is no end to the wanderer's spirit, so I ask Obie if he has any unfulfilled dreams left in his near-emptied bucket list. "Yes! I want to traverse the Gunbarrel Highway," he grins wistfully.
Dream lives on
Obie is a firm fan of the controversial Australian band Midnight Oil, who in their album, Diesel and Dust, mentioned said highway.
The only trouble is that his band of merry men, a gang of eight friends from Stellenbosch University, now all in their late seventies, are yet to be convinced to join Obie on this trek across the arid Australian desert track, consisting of about 1 350km of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand, and flood plains.
But the dream lives on. - Shortened version of an article by Plett writer Rene Connolly, supplied by Plett Tourism
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