Travelling is a privilege, and yet it is one of the truest forms of education I have known in my life – something handed to me from my own mum, who made it her mission as a single parent to afford me experiences in the world from a young age. It’s part of the reason I ended up in Vietnam in 2018 – and it was here, 10 000km from our own home city of Cape Town, that I ended up meeting Josiah. If you’ve ever hung out with homies from South Africa in another part of the world – you’ll know how all the more surreal it makes the experience. Although that was only four years ago, it feels like forever – and I think I speak for both Josiah and I when I say life has changed immeasurably, particularly in light of the pandemic. Even then, Josiah was immersed in film and photographing – and since then, he has gone to refine his career as a cinematographer and photographer, now calling Disco Creatives his agency home. Josiah is a visual story-teller; deeply curious, and is most inspired by Nature, and his partner & muse Chloe; I am grateful for this insight into how he got started, and the immeasurable value in creating a liberated life.

“I always wondered where video had emerged in my life that made me so enamoured with it. When I was studying at SAE in Woodstock, I recalled what it was; it started with stop-frame animations. I had this tiny Logitech webcam that came with this software, and I’d use plasticine to make the craziest animations. I even used my mom’s little steamer that she had for sewing to create mist and fog. So this group of stills was sort of the origin point at a young age, which later became my total fascination with film. I went to a Waldorf school, and the Class 12 project is a six month process where students are encouraged to focus on building or creating – so some people build cars, or houses – pretty much anything that ignites their passion – and I shot a down-hill skating documentary. That solidified my love and passion, waking up every single day to sunrise, skate and shoot.” Josiah says, on finding the freedom to do what he loved even in school. It’s interesting, because I have had a lot of conversations around education recently in the context of creative careers; and it is such a balance between the right environment or infrastructure, and then the nurturing of self-direction in young people. More and more we are realizing the necessity of following a path that affords a life worth living – and while this cannot be said without the acknowledgement of the privilege that provides the access to this, I have utopic sentiments that it will become the rule rather than the exception. 

“I think film is the perfect accompaniment to my love for being active – for being out in nature, or surfing, skating – it’s being able to document that, but then also learn as I went into working on production sets and collaborating with commercial partners. It never gets old, being out and shooting and thinking you have a concept – and then being totally surprised when editing, and this initial narrative you tried to shape during filming can be totally transformed.” Josiah states, and on traveling he goes onto say, “I first started traveling with just a camera, and saved up some cash – South East Asia in countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka – they are so nuanced, so rich in culture and such a juxtaposition between heavy urban settings and unbridled tropical landscapes. I think I had always favoured natural scenes – like it’s somehow good, and urban is bad – but that duality and contrast became less distinct after I traveled.”

There is an honesty in Josiah’s work; a sense that he is approaching the world with an earnest love for all that it is comprised of – and I think as we accelerate digitally, the conversations around content and media tend to be incredibly ominous; and it’s not that they shouldn’t be – there are some huge ethical implications involved in our warped-speed momentum into the digital age – but when speaking to a creative like Josiah, I am reminded of how most of our evolution as a species begins as a wonderment for our surroundings. On the power of media, Josiah relays; “I think being able to create narratives that can change someone’s perspective is exceptionally important. In 2018 I shot my first feature film which was Cut Out Girls by Nicole Hanekom. It’s a film about rape and rape-culture, and to be a part of something like this which is such an important subject for South Africa but also the entire world has made me go deeper into what film means. I think film and media have to look to create awareness around issues such as femicide.”

Written by: Holly Bell Beaton