Mikhael SubotzkyHermanus at Mariam's Kitchen, 2023
In an interview, Mikhael Subotzky reflected on his long-term collaboration with Hermanus, a man he first photographed in 2005 while working on *Umjiegwana*, a project exploring the lives of ex-prisoners. Their relationship, however, began even earlier, with Subotzky’s 2004 series *Die Vier Hoeke* (The Four Corners), which documented life inside South African prisons. This early work set the tone for a deeply personal, ongoing engagement with the people he photographed. Hermanus, in particular, became a recurring presence—appearing not only in photographs but also in Subotzky’s films, including *WYE* (2016), where he portrayed a fictionalised version of himself, and *Epilogue: Disordered, and Flatulent* (2022), which juxtaposes Hermanus’s reflections on fatherhood with Subotzky’s own exploration of paternal legacies and national identity.
The last portraits of Hermanus were taken in December 2023, as he helped Subotzky photograph the Cape Town Station and the Castle of Good Hope. At the end of the day, they returned to Hermanus’s modest living space behind Mariam’s Kitchen on the Herengracht. There, in the fading light, Subotzky captured the final images of a friend and collaborator who had shaped his work for nearly two decades. Hermanus passed away in early 2024.
