Looking for Cowboy Kate & Other Stories: 02/20/11

ABOUT ‘LOOKING FOR
COWBOY KATE & OTHER STORIES’

Once upon a time was Kate.
She was white as flowers,
warm as sunshine,
wild as whiskey and
swinging like a lamp…

Is the subtitle in Cowboy Kate & Others Stories a book by Sam Haskins.
A very rare and original copy of this photographic book came out the personal archive of my father, who handed it to me a year ago saying it is an item to investigate while adding it to my ‘baggage’ for South Africa. I loved the title and cover but didn’t give a proper look to the content at that time. Now, one year later and after re-opening my suitcase on the Shosholoza train from Johannesburg to Cape Town it became an ode to Haskins, my father and the Cowboy Kate & Other stories in my head and the beginning of this blog. Kate is turning into an intangible entity of a place, setting were modern day cowboys are all around, in many shapes & forms, bold and bleach and featuring in big or small shadows. —I’m on the lookout for my Kate and other stories here, from the southern tip of the world, in the wild wild Cape.

Sam Haskins (1926—2009) was a photographer best know for his contribution to nude photography, pre-Photoshop in-camera image montage, and his self-conducted books like Cowboy Kate (1965), November Girl (1966) and African Image (1967); the last one being a meticulously constructed book celebrating a love for sub-Saharan Africa. Haskins was born in Kroonstad, the Orange Free State of South Africa and his early creative influences were fueled by an interest in magic tricks, kite making, drawing and the circus. For many years he worked form his modern freelance advertising studio in Johannesburg, what later appeared to be a novelty in Africa.