South Africa is ready to play host for Africa’s history. The
rehearsal for that history came and gone successfully! Photographs have been
taken and everyone else has played their role. FIFA World Cup 2010 is imminent.
South Africa is joined by the world as she counts down. The residents of the
Northern hemisphere usually refer to the Fifa World cup as a summer event! I do
not blame them because for so many years the countries of the north have hosted
it, and it normally takes place in the month of June. It will be on the 11th
of that same month of June when the tournament kicks off in South Africa. If
you call it a summer event you will be wrong because this time for the first
time its in South Africa. That time is mid winter here! The days will be
shorter while the nights are usually longer in winter. But the sunny winter
days will sure provide the warmth adequate for anyone coming to bare witness to
the soccer spectacle story unfolding on the African soil. But for press
photographers like myself the excitement is [I am tempted to say its bigger]
real. As a press photographer based in Johannesburg I just know that I will not
need binoculars to register smaller details of that history in my mind. If
accredited I will sit behind the goal-line. You can ague that using my 400mm
telephoto lens is the same as using the binoculars from the last top seat at
Soccer City Stadium. No it will not be the same! I will be a lot closer! And I
will not only record it in my mind but I will have it on film. That means as I
sit behind that goal-line I will be writing history first hand! The photographs
that I will shoot that month will still be very clear by the time you start to
relate the great story of the beautiful game in South Africa to your grandchildren.
Perhaps you will search the archives for some of the photos to support your
story. To make your grandchildren feel it within their hearts as you relate the
story to them saying I was there! My fellow shooters will be there side by side
with me writing the same story.
