George Hallett
World-renowned photographer, George Hallett was born in Cape Town in 1942. Film inspired his passion for photography, as he marvelled at the cinematographical aspect of film such as camera angles and use of lighting for dramatic effect.
Hallett began a correspondence course in photography with the City and Guild of London at the age of 20 and subsequently free-lanced for Drum Magazine. He left for Europe in 1970 where he worked in London, freelancing for The Times-Educational Supplement, BBC Television, Heinemann Educational Books (as a cover designer for over twelve years and various other publications. Under the auspices of the World Council of Churches, he showcased his first exhibition in Amsterdam during this period.
In 1974, Hallett moved near Perpignan in France, where he took up small-scale farming. There he still practiced the art of photography, with the locals becoming the subjects of his work and regularly travelled abroad to exhibit and teach. He also later resided in Paris and Amsterdam.
In 1995, he was awarded with the Golden Eye Award from the World Press Photo in Amsterdam for a series of photographs of Nelson Mandela taken during the 1994 elections. He had been commissioned by the ANC to photographically document their coming to power.
His work has been exhibited worldwide from the Howard University Gallery of Modern Art in Washington D.C, to the University of Lund in Sweden, to the South African National Gallery in Cape Town where he once again resides.
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