About the work:
After reading in 2011, of the upcoming Cat of the Year contest to be held at an hotel in Sandton, I decided to apply to the organisers for permission to set up a small, mobile photographic studio at the contest venue to photograph some of the cats.
The organisers approved of my plan. And so, after setting up a backdrop and lights, I went about the contest venue offering fine feline photography to the owners.
Besides fulfilling my fascination for these animals, I was hoping to try and make some money by selling them a few prints after the event.
But after emailing the images to the owners, and having some interested replies, I sadly never sold a single photograph. I recall one or two even having the temerity to request that I remove a watermark that I applied to the versions that I emailed them.
Looking back though, the cats made it all worth my while.
Bio:
Brett Eloff is an independently employed, professional photographer, residing and working principally in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He began his career in the early nineties, covering South Africa’s transition to democracy and the accompanying violence, which engulfed the townships around Johannesburg.
Since those heady days, Brett has been assigned by numerous publications and organisations, both locally and abroad, with a focus mostly on actuality and portraiture. He was contracted to South Africa’s Sunday Times for four years in the late 90’s, has worked as Pictures Editor for an environmental journal and served as Associate Editor for a men’s magazine. More recently, Brett was one of two South African photographers to have been nominated for the inaugural Prix Pictect photography prize and has also received numerous assignments from non-profit NGO Oxfam America to document humanitarian efforts in Africa, South East Asia and the Caribbean.
Brett held his first solo exhibition at a Johannesburg art gallery in August 2012.