The work and life of prolific photographer John Hodgkiss, who died on March 15 at the age of 45, was recalled at a memorial in Johannesburg this week.
The courtyard at the downtown Arts on Main development hosted a large crowd of artists and friends who arrived to remember the photographer, whose main body of work consisted of thousands of images of local artworks and art happenings.
Hodgkiss was a constant presence in the city’s art circles and many spoke of his “colourful presence”, as journalist and magazine editor Toby Shapshak described it in a press obituary last weekend.
Shapshak, a close friend who met Hodgkiss while studying at Rhodes University, said at the memorial service of the hard-living photographer: “When we arrived at Rhodes we were all drunken students, but John was already a professional.”
Hodgkiss had studied photography under veteran photographer Obie Oberholzer.
“He had a knack for bringing anything to life. But it wasn’t just artists. John took pictures of everybody,” Shapshak said.
“I was quite shocked to see the range of photographs that I never knew about. When Ron Clarke, the scientist, discovered the most complete skeleton in the world at Sterkfontein, when the photographs came out they had been taken by John Hodgkiss.”
Gallery owner and publisher David Krut said Hodgkiss had worked on several publications for his art-book publishing house. He had photographed the work of prestigious artists such as William Kentridge, Steven Cohen and the Handspring Puppet Company for Krut.
“Cohen wanted John to be the photographer for his book because they had been in the army together,” said Krut. “He did such great work and he was so dedicated that we started using him for all our books.
“Other people picked up on this and started using him for their art. He did seven or eight books for us, the major one being about the Handspring Puppet Company. We paid for him to go abroad. We loved working with him.”
Shapshak called Hodgkiss a “documentarian because he documented so many artists. He documented so many of the moments of our lives, but he was in a class of his own and he had a feeling for film [photography].”
Yet gallery owner and artist ÂGordon Froud had put on the only solo show of Hodgkiss’s photography at his now closed gallery in ÂMelville.
The fact that Hodgkiss had only exhibited once was, according to an email from France-based South African artist Cohen, something to be addressed.
“It’s time to give something back,” wrote Cohen. “A recognition of him as his own artist, not a name made on the backs of others.”
Cohen recalled: “When I was 22 years old, on the second day of conscription into the South African Defence Force in 1985, there were several thousand people lined up on the parade ground at Voortrekkerhoogte. Officials were calling names for different terrible destinations. Suddenly, one boy broke ranks, screaming from the bottom of his stomach as he ran. He was suppressed by military police, who took him away.” That conscript was John Hodgkiss.
Hodgkiss was found dead on his couch in Melville. Although he had died of natural causes, it is likely that heavy drinking and a punishing work schedule contributed to his demise.