It feels like the first time, every time

I remember the first day one of my pics was published, it felt like Christmas morning! Oh the excitement!

Fast forward a couple of years and you would think the excitement would have worn off by now...but every time I see another one of my pics published I feel the same thrill and sheer joy as I did the first time! Seeing my work out there really boosts my pride in my work and gets rid of any doubt I may have about my skill.

Many of the pics I have worked on are sold as stock photos, so it's not often that I know where the pics are being used and it's pure luck when I stumble upon them as was the case at the recent Photo & Film Expo. I was walking around at the expo when something caught my eye... I know that girl, oh my god, it's Joyce, it's Luba's pic, it's my makeup, it's in a big shiny book, no wait, it's in TWO shiny books!



Photographer: Luba V Nel
Model: Joyce Nkonyana
The staff at the Jetline stand must have thought I was a lunatic! I squealed with delight when I saw the pics!
Jetline man: "Mam, would you be interested in a photo book?"
Lunatic: "No! But please take a photo of your stand and mms it to me, I left my phone at our stand and I NEED a photo of this!"

.

I want to eat black skin because it reminds me of chocolate

I love doing makeup on black girls (should I be saying ethnic, african, girls of colour,previously disadvantaged?.....build a bridge), foundation seems to melt onto their skin and really makes it look like chocolate. One day, if I'm very hungry I fear I may just nibble a black cheek, or I might just sneak in a lick while pretending to do a close up makeup check.

I also love old people skin, the really wrinkly crepey kind that hangs off cheeks, chins and elbows (I especially love elbow skin!). I often want to touch old strangers; standing in line at the bank and I stand a little too close to the old duck in front so my hand brushes against her elbow "hello mam can I help you stand, you must be so tired" *handful of elbow skin = bliss*. I was standing in a queue the other day and this old man in front of me had this mass of loose skin under his chin, he looked like a turkey, I was mesmerized - I would pay good money to fondle it just for a few seconds *"Hi, my name is Stavvie, I'm a weirdo""Hiiiiiiiiii, Staaavvieee"*

How fab is this hair?? Yours truly had her hands in there. The super talented model Fikile made the shoot spectacular, she is extremely versatile and dedicated.

Shane Smith the great photographer (he's also my gay husbands husband - one big happy family!) put so much effort into planning this shoot and the results speak for themselves (Results say: "these pics are fab")

Another versatile model whose portfolio just keeps getting better and better, Joyce (why cant I remember black girls surnames??). This was Bruce K Cantrell's (http://www.brucekcantrell.com/) idea, at first I was a bit sceptical but I reckon it turned out pretty alright



Here's Joyce again for a shoot done with Luba Nel, it was for a jewellery store and some of the pics were used in the newspaper for advertising, still so exciting to see my work out there

Published Work

My first cover! oh the excitement! It was a Friday morning when the mag went on sale - I called 5fm for the Reasons-To-Feel-Good bit - "My reason to feel good is that I did makeup for my first cover and its on sale today!"

I have a random friend on Facebook who was chatting quite a lot to me at that time, he sent me a mail asking if it was me he heard on the radio - yes sirreeee it was me! He said it was so weird that he heard my voice on the radio before he even met me. I think I should marry him so we can have a cool story to tell the grandkids

Back to the cover: Model - Maria Ting-Yu Chou, Hair Stylist - Mario Careri (smokes the best cigarettes from Turkey apparently), Photographer - Paul Duffy (crazy Brit, fabulous dark humour, likes to say arse and knob, http://www.paulduffyphoto.com/)

This picture was not specifically shot for the cover - the magazine featured Bruce K Cantrell (http://www.brucekcantrell.com/) and it was chosen from his pics

I love this pic! Very trashy makeup, model lying on the road in skimpy clothes, definitely not her usual look (http://www.jordanleschinsky.com/). This pic is also very sentimental to me because I met my gay husband at that shoot *shows Johann her koeksuster fingers*

This pic was an A4 feature in the above Pix Mag, some more of Bruce K Cantrell's amazing work. The lovely model is Shafiqua du Sart

This pic was taken for stock purposes and appeared in the April '09 issue of Soul mag, no I had never heard of Soul mag before but its still just as exciting to have your pics in an unknown magazine!

Model - the beautiful and very versatile Joyce *makes a note to find out Joyce who*

Photographer - the extremely talented Luba Nel, she is the model's cheerleader while shooting, great fun to watch

This pic also appeared in the April '09 issue of Soul magazine

Model - Joyce (her surname is on the tip of my tongue), Photographer - Luba Nel