Globetrotting photographers and journalists Desmond Louw and Antonia Heil are based between Cape Town and Berlin. Combining their love of cars, travel and people, they have been gathering content for a book they hope to publish next year.

“We love photographing people and their wheels and listening to their stories,” says Antonia.

Visit the ‘automotive’ section of their website and you’ll understand why we are so obsessed and why they’re in such demand. When Wanted chatted to them in late October (2016), they’d just wrapped up shooting the Porsche Sport Driving School in Portugal and were heading to Finland on another Porsche commission.

Elodye Davids
Elodye Davids
Image: DNA Photographers

“The people we are including in this book are among the many we have met on our travels in South Africa, the USA, Portugal, Germany and Thailand.” While working on this project, they also discovered that most of these characters are not only passionate about their modes of transport but are also entrepreneurs, creatives, people who love their jobs, and as Desmond says, “are altogether pretty happy people!” Titled ‘wor{king}’, we persuaded them to share these portraits with us, which we will run as weekly posts.

Meet French national and curator Elodye Davids, who has made Cape Town her new home. 

Elodye Davids and her classic 1973 Mini
Elodye Davids and her classic 1973 Mini
Image: DNA Photographers

“Whilst looking for a Volkswagen Beetle three years ago, I found this classic Mini at the old Motostars showroom and had no doubt that this car absolutely had to be mine," exclaims Elodye. "It is much more than just an iconic design. I fell in love, and so do other people when they that see it out and about. They often end up leaving notes on my windshield. So ever since I have a box where I keep all of these notes. For the day I want to sell? No ways!!!"

"The furthest I’ve ever gone was to Citrusdal, at the base of the Cederberg mountains about 160km north of Cape Town. It was not very far but for this Mini it was quite a stretch! People there reacted like they hadn’t seen a car like this in their lives and looked at us like we were from another planet. I think it was on the N7, workers on the road laughed at us, probably because of how small it looked in comparison to their gigantic trucks.”

Image: DNA Photographers
© Wanted 2024 - If you would like to reproduce this article please email us.
X