take the shot

an interview with Jaco S. Venter

I catch up with friend, musician and talented photographer to chat about his style, his inspiration and the events leading up to how he ended up flying out the door of their moving tour van and then being wheeled in to a hospital smoking room while still in his hospital bed with a broken hip to enjoy a quick ciggie.

Jaco is the drummer for Fokofpolisiekar and aKing, arguably two of the biggest rock bands to come out of SA, and although most guys don't like smoke blown up their ass, it has to be said, he is one heck of a rocknrolla.

Jaco and I first met back in 2012, when one of his bands that he drums for, aKING, was on an Eastern Cape tour and we booked them at a venue in PE where I was one of the owners back then. What started as a couple beers around a table on the deck before the show, finds us 8ys later still smashing beers together to this current day, although dare I say, we are a little bit older and a little bit wiser.

With my years in the restaurant trade, and Snakeheads rock n roll career, meant we regularly found ourselves awake in the early hours of the morning and looking for a drinking partner just to have a last knertsie with, however we lived in different cities.

With technology, this was no issue, and we would have a digital party over watsapp video calls, talking kak and smashing shots till sunrise. So in other words, we were having ZOOM meetings before they were fashionable, albeit they more like BOOZE meetings. For those of you who don't know, Jaco is the drummer for Fokofpolisiekar and aKING, arguably two of the biggest rock bands to come out of SA, and although most guys don't like smoke blown up their ass, it has to be said, he is one heck of a rocknrolla.

This however is not about his music career, as I noticed that he always had a camera with him, and would be shooting a lot of still imagery, and the more I looked in to what he does with a camera, it became evident that Snakehead is not a one trick pony, and I can dig that!

So I had a few questions I wanted to ask him about his photography talents, style and inspiration, and also this one time when he went flying out of their moving tour van during a heated band argument.

Crack yourself a cold one, and read on....

I started taking photos about eleven years ago as a means to better help remember the parties we were having on the road with my one band, aKING.

josh: Having the privilege of getting to know you over the years, it was evidently clear from the outset that besides having a passion for smashing the skins on stage, photography was another major interest of yours. Have you always been snap happy or is this a relatively new talent of yours?

snake: I started taking photos about eleven years ago as a means to better help remember the parties we were having on the road with my one band, aKING. We really started to play a lot of shows and spent a lot of time on the road around that period and the after parties were quite legendary but caused some forgetfulness. My father was throwing out our old family Pentax MX film camera for a new digital camera and that's when I decided to take up the hobby of film photography. It was a lot of reading and pestering of my professional photographer friends that lead to me eventually developing a full roll of in-focus and properly exposed film. That was a big deal for me and about 2 years later I bought my first digital camera which opened up a whole world of visual communication to me.

josh: There is a fairly classic feel to your snaps, particularly as the majority are in black and white. What inspires you about this particular style and what’s your goto gear to achieve this? snake: I shoot both black and white and colour, depending on what the photos are for, but predominantly like black and white as a medium. I feel it’s great for isolating your subject matter both physically and psychologically. It’s easier to separate the subject from the background and it also has a timeless quality to it that makes it harder to see which era a photo is from. I like that. Overall I shoot with a Fuji X-Pro 2 (and prime lenses), a Nikon FE2 and a Yashica T4 but mostly the Fuji. The people from Fuji are super cool and they help out a lot when I’m working on music videos or projects.

We somehow also managed to find time to sink a lot of drinks which meant sleep was a very rare commodity during the production. Priorities, right?

snake: People, definitely. I like to document people that I have access to through my music career and lifestyle. The more mundane everyday sort of scenarios that I document with these people I feel become so much more interesting to look at when you add a couple of years to give it some context.

josh: The cover image with Jack Parow and the Elephants has got to be one of my fave pics of yours from the kyknet series “Dis Hoe Ons Rol”, and i'm seriously bummed I wasn’t available when you were passing through on your way up the Wild Coast. Have you spent much time in this neck of the woods prior to that and in your opinion, how photogenic is the landscape?

snake: The Dis Hoe Ons Rol production did however see us travelling through the whole of South Africa and if there are any places that I somehow missed in my career as a travelling musician DHOR filled the gaps. The Wild Coast is definitely one of my favourite parts of SA. It’s interesting to see how light falls and shapes differently across the country. As an example, I always thought that some of my favourite photographers up the coast’s photos were influenced by a certain colour grading style but after shooting there I realised that is just what the light does.

josh: Speaking of DHOR and the genuinely thirsty individuals involved, how hard was it to find a work / beer balance on that road trip and how much of that footage can never see the light of day?

snake: Hahaha! That production was long and hard and it’s because we didn’t make it easy for ourselves. We covered the whole of South Africa on Motorcycles in a 5 week period and squashed all of that into only 10 episodes. Meaning that on average we covered about 200-300km a day, had a call schedule of 2 to 3 towns a day, with about 4 interviews, 2 activities and all the while having to do setups and re-shoots of the boys travelling on the bikes. We had way too much content and could’ve easily have made at least 20 episodes worth of TV. The days started at around 4am a lot of the time and we only stopped shooting late at night and sometimes Jack Parow also had gigs to play (which featured in the TV show). We somehow also managed to find time to sink a lot of drinks which meant sleep was a very rare commodity during the production. Priorities, right?

josh: So move forward to current day, you are still an avid photographer, the drummer for Fokofpolisiekar and aKing and own a share in your own beer brand, Fokof Lager, as well as a watering hole, Fokof Bar. Sounds like your cup doth overflowith… so whats next on your post Rona radar?

snake: Hahaha! All of the other projects I had started up, (photo/video work, the beer and the bar as well as playing music in more than one project) was to create an environment of income stability because you don’t want to (to quote Noel Gallagher) ‘Put your life in the hands of a Rock’n Roll band’. Well, Corona also almost undid all the progress we made with these as the bar and beer was banned during lockdown. Luckily they both survived and we are able to pick-up and start working again. I also reached out to the people at Godox Lights and Outdoor Photo and they sent me some amazing gear to facilitate some personal photographic work I want to do, as my gigging schedule is cleared up for the foreseeable future. We were also busy recording some new Fokofpolisiekar music so I’ll probably start working on some music videos to accompany the tracks.

josh: I wasn’t sure if I was gonna bring this up, but I love this story, so f**k it here go’s… in the 2009 DVD, Fokofpolisiekar “forgive them as they know not what they do”, there’s a pic of you lying in a hospital bed with a broken arm while puffing on a ciggie, so I guess this is a two parter: According to urban legend you threw yourself out the door of your moving tour van as the band was having a heated argument after a gig, is this really what went down, and how did you manage to light up while in your hospital bed?

snake: Haha! There are parts of that story that I won’t mention but from what I can remember I said that I was stepping out of the van as a way to leave the argument and opened the door. I don’t know if I physically jumped out or whether the driver stepped on the brakes and I flew out at 80kph, but all I know is that the next thing I was lying in front of the van with headlights on me and I was laughing and saying ‘I always wanted to do that’! It was wild, man.

My arm was completely mangled and luckily the doctors were able to save it. As for that classic Liam Lynch photo... Liam came to visit me at the hospital in Witbank about 2 days after the accident and it was great to see a friend.

I wanted to have a smoke and because my hip was broken he pushed my entire bed into the smoking room. He took that picture of me with all my scabs and scars smoking in the hospital bed and it featured in the newspaper the next day. After the nurses saw that picture they were super friendly as they now had a ‘celebrity’ in their hospital. That picture had such a spirit of resilience and stubbornness and really helped me focus and get back to health. 6 months after that I was playing Oppikoppi main stage again.

josh: hahaha that story never gets old and if punk rock in SA ever needed some poster children for reckless abandon back in the day, Fokofpolisiekar was it.

That picture had such a spirit of resilience and stubbornness and really helped me focus and get back to health. 6 months after that I was playing Oppikoppi main stage again.

I know you’ve had a few exhibitions of your work over the years, so where can somebody go to have a browse through your portfolio, both physical and digital?

snake: I have tried to build a website for my photography so many times and then just gave up or got distracted. At this moment in time you can have a look at some of my photos on Instagram at snakeskull666. If you like any of them and would like a signed print, DM me for a price-list.