BATHROOM BUTLER - NELSON MANDELA DAY

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In celebration of Nelson Mandela day, Bathroom Butler, a manufacturer of high-end bathroom accessories and Heated towel rails, embarked on a month of celebration, themed around Mandela.

They asked stylist Corne Johl from Johl Design Studio to design the mood boards and I was tasked with photographing her creations as well as turning them into videos for social media. Johl described the inspiration behind the boards as follow:

"I came across this amazing passage by art historian Lize van Robbroeck:

Mandela's idiosyncratic shirts (now, of course, avidly marketed) signal his freedom to take or leave Western conventions of power: they are the sartorial embodiment of a vision of global citizenship. While the suit speaks the language of legality, constitutions, and contracts, the Mandela shirt speaks the language of freedom and self-constitution, of a humanism that is not exclusively defined by the West. This semiotics of emancipation is beautifully communicated in the comic book when a young girl points at Mandela and asks, "Excuse me, but why do you wear a shirt like that?" Mandela laughingly replies, "You must remember that I was in jail for 27 years. I want to feel freedom!"

I am fascinated by the fact that your choice of clothes communicate a non-verbal message. While I was doing research for this “Madiba project” I was drawn to A. photographs of places that have historic significance B. photographs of Nelson Mandela (and what he was wearing)."

The Beginning

The choice of materials and finishes for the first board was influenced by the colours and natural textures from a photograph of Qunu, the childhood village of Nelson Mandela.

Robben Island

This board took inspirational cues from pictures of Bluestone Quarry on Robben Island.

Freedom

Inspirational cues where taken from photos that where taken on the day that Nelson Mandela was released from the Victor Verster prison on 11 February 1990.