Sean Metelerkamp

Sean Metelerkamp's photography assails you with a noisy circus of technicolour characters, at times ghoulish or grotesque, but always oddly beautiful. Belinda Archer meets a serious talent who just likes to smile.

A quick riffle through the work of this lavishly talented film-maker-cum-photographer leaves you feeling everything from startled to intrigued. Anything but numb. For nothing that Sean Metelerkamp, a 25-year-old South African, shoots is dull.

Gawdy, dayglo colours mingle with striking images of kitsched-up models in giraffe body paint or punks smoking improbably over-sized joints. There's characters in silly wigs and false moustaches, crazy make-up, lots of gore and it's all mad and totally gorgeous and, dare I say it, a little bit David LaChapelle?

"David LaChapelle has inspired me, as have many other artists including Helmut Newton and Chris Cunningham," he states simply.

This 'new' talent hasn't come from nowhere of course. He has been fruitfully making films since 2003, the most recent of which was a video he shot for the SA band Die Antwoord which was a massive success on YouTube, notching up over 2 million hits. He has also shot a Coca-Cola commercial for local SA agency The Royal Metropole as well as lensed a handful of other promos.

Metelerkamp added photography to his professional portfolio just two and a half years ago.

"I remember pulling a flyer off the windscreen of my friend's car and having a mini argument about how terrible the press photos for musicians were in South Africa. He said 'well then do something about it'. And so I did."

After going on tour with a band that he had made a music video for, he sold his car and bought a quality camera. There was one specific photo which he took that got noticed, and a different band asked him to take press shots for them.

"I had an idea immediately and spent three days painting my garage and hanging up some lights. They loved the final product," he says.

Interestingly, this multi-faceted Cape Towner believes his two worlds of photography and filmmaking are quite separate.

"I don't feel as though either has an impact or influence on the other, other than the fact that the process differs," he says. "From my first conceptualized photo experience I realized that I could have a fair amount of control and come really close to the original idea I had, whereas with filmmaking I had to rely on many people to understand my idea. For photos I just work with a girl who builds unique props. Me and her, and if need be we get in makeup and hair."

In fact, at the moment, he says he prefers neither, actually favouring drawing stick men on white A4 paper. "They make me laugh and I can keep them a secret, unlike the photos and videos that everybody looks at," he says, dreamily.

One imagines that whatever this winningly modest young fellow turns his hand to, he will excel at. Already he is being managed by Harry & Co, a creative shop based in Cape Town which powers the careers of various cutting edge visual artists and photographers, and he has also just signed to Moonwalk Films in Paris for Paris representation.

But he is charmingly low-key in his ambitions: "In five years I would like to be wherever I am, doing whatever I want, with a smile on my face."