The Candid Frame: A Photography Podcast

Born in the rural town of Hammanskraal, South Africa in 1974 and having grown up on several farms since then, Alastair McLachlan’s early work was particularly influenced by his “sense of place”, by the land itself and the primary elements of fire, earth, water and air. Living on a farm in Zwartkops, on the Hennops river made him increasingly aware and alarmed by what seemed a ruthless and ill conceived invasion by industry and development – large tracks of land and vegetation seemed to disappear overnight – it was the scale, rate and sheer disregard for beauty, as evidenced by the proliferation of uniform cinder block houses and corrugated factories that scared him. What resulted was a series of “underground adventure installations” – rescued tree roots hung from ceilings in darkened spaces, reminiscent of fairground horror houses, designed to be investigated by torchlight. In 1996 he began documenting Drive-ins around the country – an intriguing counterpoint to human endeavour but with the same vestige remna