Francois Maritz: An island love affair

An island love affair

Story by Petra de Mooy. Photography by Francois Maritz.

Page left: Fire front 1 Summer 2019/20. Above: New Holland Honeyeater and bee.

People often wonder how we source stories for FLM. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of keeping your eyes, and your heart, open. A few weeks prior to going to print with this issue of FLM, our outgoing advertising manager Holly and I wandered into Goodness Coffee at Aldinga – as we so often do. On the front table was a big, square book with an eye-catchingly minimal cover design that read simply: Textures of That Summer.

The book opens with an image awash with the bright blue of the sky and the azure blue sea below. It depicts a group of young jetty jumpers at Kingscote Wharf on Kangaroo Island (KI) – an optimistic and fun moment, frozen in time. As we continue to leaf through, we find the book documents the Kangaroo Island bushfires of 2020 – the first image standing in stark contrast to what was to come – before, during and after.

There is a quietness to the images. There is beauty and loss as well as hope and regeneration. Images of the ominous sky, the fireground, endless textures of grey, black and brown. Animals, birds, regrowth. It’s an achingly beautiful document.

The images are abstract but very real. An overhead shot portrays tracks in the landscape: white on black on grey. We later learn these tracks were made by the firetrucks repetitively moving in and out to one of the many fire-fronts as they attempted to save property.

We’re moved by the beautiful and reverent storytelling that is revealed with each turn of a page. But when we look to find the photographer’s name it’s not on the front nor on the inside pages. Finally we see it, there on the back cover at the bottom: Francois Maritz. >

Page left top: Fire front 2 Summer 2019/20 Bottom: Night Harvest. Above: Two weeks after the fire, yucca rebirth.

Back in the office, I Google the photographer’s name and find that there’s a new-ish bookstore on the island called Big Quince Print. They have the book. I call the owner, Alice Teasdale, and she enthusiastically fills me in on the details. The book is self-published by Francois’ wife, Alison Higgs. Francois took the images during the fires as well as in the regenerative period afterwards.

Francois had no intention that the images would go further than his desktop computer, but Alison and Alice felt they should be seen. So, they designed the book and had a small quantity printed. Holly and I immediately order one each.

Alice connects me with Alison, and when we eventually speak by phone, I’m gratified that they are happy for us to publish some of Francois’ images, with Alison acting as Francois’ agent. Unlike many career artists, Francois isn’t hungry for exposure but is happy to have Alison act on his behalf. While he’s now in the enviable position of being able to pursue his art without the pressures of financial gain (‘he does it to please himself,’ says Alison), this wasn’t always the case.

For decades prior to moving to KI, Francois worked as a commercial photographer in South Africa and New Zealand before eventually landing in Ceduna with Alison and their two children. Despite experiencing success, including winning a prestigious Cleo award, in 2003 Francois put away his photography equipment as life took him in another direction. Originally from Namibia, his family required his support on their game farm. Dutiful and committed, Francois and his family spent years ‘commuting’ back and forth between Australia and Namibia to ensure the survival of the farm. During that time Francois fully relinquished the career he’d successfully built up in photography. But despite this sacrifice, he was very content in his deep love for his country of birth. >

Above: Cutting Hay. Bottom: Nepean Bay.

Then came an opportunity for Alison to take up a job as a midwife on KI. They took the plunge, moving from the desert-like environs of Ceduna to the natural paradise of KI. It was this move that inspired Francois’ return to photography. Alison says it was love at first sight as she recalls the day Francois landed on KI. He found himself immediately fumbling around in his packed car to find his camera and hasn’t stopped documenting the island from his unique perspective ever since. Since that time, Francois’s photography has been published in Textures of That Summer as well as another book simply titled Kangaroo Island. Alison, speaking of Francois’ knack for finding an artist’s perspective on both the iconic and hidden treasures of KI. His commitment to photographing the island represents hours and hours of seeking, looking and waiting for a symbiosis between the conditions and the landscape to reveal itself for long enough to be captured by his camera.

Francois says, ‘An image is an expression of a journey and a comment of a moment.’ He’s drawn into the environment and creates images of arresting, wild beauty. We count ourselves forever lucky to be able to see KI through his unique lens and to share his work here.