Gwynne

Gwynne Cape Town based visual storyteller, 🍃 exploring ecosystems, unearthing intimacy

An ecostoryteller looking to delve into our natural environment, while at the same time exploring intimacies surrounding social dynamics

conversations with myself🌵
24/09/2024

conversations with myself🌵

[SOLASTALGIA🍃] Here we have Qhawe posed in various scenes around Wentworth, Durban. These spaces that served as backdrop...
09/10/2022

[SOLASTALGIA🍃] Here we have Qhawe posed in various scenes around Wentworth, Durban. These spaces that served as backdrops for our portraits hold a lot of meaning to me; these are the scenes that I grew up with. Watching as the foundations of the old Whaling Station fence crumble, the paint at the public pools flaking off, stepping over the broken concrete fence of the local sports field, here I was reminded of the concept of Solastalgia.

🍄Developed by Australian geoscientist Glenn Albrecht, Solastalgia started from an interest in exploring the relationship between ecosystem distress and human distress, originally linking it to our sense of loss with a place. The concept is still in incubation mode, restricted to the realms of neologism and has yet to fully evolve. As the environment deteriorates, humans mourn the changing of natural landscapes that they grew up in, experiencing nostalgia (nostos = return to home or native land, algia = pain or sickness), yet not for home this time, but for the environment as it once was; we are now separated from that which made us feel whole.

🌞Solastalgia; derived from solari and solacium, holding meanings in alleviation of distress, the provision of comfort, consolation in the face of distressing events. It has its origins in desolare, connected to desolation and abadonment. The structure of the word itself a ghost of nostalgia, connecting nature to a home that we mourn. It is the pain that we feel when the place we love is under attack, manifesting in the feeling that one’s sense of self and place is in distress, almost a feeling of “erosion [in their] sense of belonging”.

🔎Check out my website for the full post, and check out my portraits page for more detailed photos.

30/09/2022

🌻Canola Fields in Cape Town 🌻

I think this was the first time I ever styled a model for a shoot 🧐 shout out to the millions of pegs that were holding ...
25/09/2022

I think this was the first time I ever styled a model for a shoot 🧐 shout out to the millions of pegs that were holding the clothing up for Nasreen 😭💕

[VIEWS FROM SIGNAL HILL]🏞️Signal Hill, to me, is a single point wherein different aspects of Cape Town intersect. On the...
22/09/2022

[VIEWS FROM SIGNAL HILL]
🏞️Signal Hill, to me, is a single point wherein different aspects of Cape Town intersect. On the surface, historians will simply refer to Signal Hill as a space where the city placed their Noon Guns atop this hill in 1864 to be used as a firing Time Signal. To this day, the Noon Guns’ Master Clock still connects to the oldest timekeeper in the country, the South African Astronomical Observatory.

🍂The ecological history is vast, with the Post-Apartheid South African government subjecting Signal Hill to various commercial afforestation projects since 1894, planting namely pine and eucalypt tree species. Finally in 1964, Table Mountain was ‘officially’ declared a Nature Reserve, bringing an end to artificial planting of alien trees. The City of Cape Town gradually attempted to remove or reduce alien trees by cutting them down, although more investment in this area is needed. The planting of indigenous plants in the area is still underway; prioritising West Coast Renosterveld, the most threatened vegetation within the Fynbos Biome.

🧭However that is simply the Colonial story of Signal Hill, a story that boils down to a single use: Timekeeper - and we have spent the past few years healing our damaged timekeeper through indigenous forest revitalisation. The story of Signal Hill runs so much richer than that, it is coated in a plethora of different human experiences, seeping into different cultures and lived experiences...

💬For the rest of this post, head over to my blog. And let me know your thoughts on this Landscape Appreciation post! Cited works are linked in my website blog page.

Hey everyone! 👋 it’s been a while 💫 🩹The pandemic and resulting lockdown ultimately lead to me going dormant these past ...
02/09/2022

Hey everyone! 👋 it’s been a while 💫

🩹The pandemic and resulting lockdown ultimately lead to me going dormant these past 2 1/2 years (with the occasional effort to make a post here or there), so I think a re-introduction is needed.

👽 For those who don’t know, my name is Gwynne (pronounced gwɪn); amateur anthropologist, environmental humanities masters student and photographer.

🌻My focus in engaging with social media platforms is to use them as a way to re-engage with photography, re-immerse myself in nature, and re-acquaint myself with the art of storytelling.

🏞️Depression and anxiety has kept me so fearful of the world I live in; now that I’m in a better space, my time will be spent exploring my environment through images, videos, and written reflections. So let’s get started!

💬If you’d like to see more of this journey then keep an eye out for links I’ll be posting for my upcoming website/portfolio, other social medias, and blogs.

🌱🌿🍃CHANAX6WYNNE🍃🌿🌱Being comfortable with yourself can be a sexual experience. Being one with nature can be a sexual expe...
28/08/2020

🌱🌿🍃CHANAX6WYNNE🍃🌿🌱
Being comfortable with yourself can be a sexual experience. Being one with nature can be a sexual experience. Giving birth can be a sexual experience. Love can be a sexual experience. We can be sexual beings if we choose, no shame or guilt needed.
All photos, edit and design by me.
Thank you for the assist🙏 and thank you for modelling
@ Vredehoek, Western Cape, South Africa

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