2012

The Van Kalker photographic collection is a vault of private moments in which special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, graduations and christenings have been immortalised and memorialised. They offer an intimate yet still unfolding account of the city of Cape Town and its people.

The Van Kalker Studio, started by the late J. G. Van Kalker in 1937 at 47 Victoria Street, Woodstock, became one of the most popular photo studios in Cape Town. Against a backdrop of increasing segregation which later culminated in Apartheid in 1948, Van Kalker provided a space in which aspirations and fantasies could be articulated through poses, props, clothing and accessories. The studio provided a space where, for a brief moment, sitters could be free from the harsh realities of their socio-economic and political circumstances. Nestled between a café adjacent to The Gem Bioscope and a men’s clothing shop, the Van Kalker studio occupied a tiny space in the Trafalgar Building on the busy main street of Woodstock, which always seemed to be teeming with people and traffic. Trained as a photographer in Europe, Van Kalker immigrated to South Africa from the Netherlands just before the start of World War II. Primarily a commercial photographer, he appealed to the burgeoning working class communities of District Six, Salt River, Woodstock and other surrounding areas partly because of his ability to take  good photographs and because the studio was located on a main transport route.