Photo AlchemyThe workbench
Collage and montageCut and rebuilt
African Art FusionWith Simon Shone
Two kinds of writing, both by Martin. Stories are the making of a work or a series. Essays are the thinking: art and the camera, Photo Alchemy, the joy of creating, and collecting.
Written from forty years at the easel, in the darkroom and in the classroom. New writing about twice a month, and a written companion for every long film.

A weekend in the Karoo in September 2020, a walk at last light, and a garden bust of David in broken sunglasses. The story behind Dawid van die Wolwe, and how to win a signed print of him.
Read the story
A misty morning near Swellendam in May 2015, a farmer on a grader, a deal between father and daughter, and a tree that is no longer there. The story behind Solitude.

What is abstract photography? Martin Osner explains the two kinds of abstraction, the techniques behind his own work, and how to look at and enjoy it.

Abandoned car photography by Martin Osner: the story behind Abandoned No.36, a forgotten car on a Karoo hill near Klaarstroom, and the book of all forty.

From weathered boats to leftover paint on scrap paper, how photographic montage turns the lens into something closer to a brush, and the series it made.

A shepherd painting of Jesus by Martin Osner: the story behind Eternal Shepherd, a palette knife work he made for himself, and why it moved so many people.

A Karoo landscape painting by Martin Osner: the story behind Fields of Gold, near Montagu, an open gate, a windmill and years of photographs, now in paint.

Street photography that tells a story: six candid black and white moments from one week in Cape Town in 2007, and how Martin Osner's On the Move was made.

How a leftover sheet of aluminium became Zinhle, how she found a twin, and how Ayanda made them sisters. The story of Martin Osner's Tshazile paintings.

Intentional camera movement in a misty forest: how Martin Osner made the four Creation photographs in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, days before an exhibition.
A short letter when there is something worth sharing: a finished painting, a new collection, an essay, an exhibition opening. No schedule for its own sake.