Pierre de Villiers ~ a man of many talents
You know those excellent photographs that you see in various surfing magazines and on websites, the ones where you can see right into the barrel inside the curl of a wave? I’m sure you know the ones I mean. Well, if you’re anything like me, you have probably marvelled over such photography and often wondered how on earth such an incredible shot was achieved. This week I had the opportunity to ask these questions, to ask somebody who spends a large part of his life capturing such awesome images…
Meet Pierre de Villers, Water Photographer extraordinaire. It was a rather humbling experience, meeting Pierre and knowing that he is single-handedly responsible for images of such a high calibre. As a photographer myself, I understood him on a certain level – despite the fact that our areas of photography are poles apart, the passion and the knowledge of your chosen subject remains the same, whether portrait work, nature or the ocean…
Involved in all things to do with the sea from a young age, Pierre developed a love for the ocean very early on in life. He began Body Boarding in 1988 and never stopped. In fact, Pierre was the reigning Body Boarding SA Champ (in his age category) up until last year when he handed over the title.
Pierre explained to me that photography in general was not necessarily one of his greatest passions early on, but that it developed through his love of the ocean. You would imagine, given the absolutely breathtaking images that Pierre produces, that photography was something he studied for years, but not so… he just happens to be one of those people blessed with an extraordinary natural talent, a talent that he is now sharing with us more than ever before…
From his photographic images, Pierre developed a unique type of art. He introduced the method of aluminium printing, resulting in the most stunning artwork, recently exhibited at Floradale Fine Art Gallery and purchased by people all over the world, thanks to the wonder of online digital galleries.
And of course, his creative streak does not end there… in fact, his creative streak surfaced when Pierre came out of the Navy: he completed a 5-year Goldsmith Apprenticeship with Kevin Koppel and when Kevin relocated to Cape Town, he offered Pierre his jewellery business. Pierre accepted this opportunity and launched Pierre Marc Handcrafted Jewellery. To this day, he is doing extraordinary well with it, working by himself, and absolutely loving every minute of it. Through his jewellery business, Pierre has developed his own very unique style of jewellery art – something that, to his knowledge, has not been done before. The art incorporates silver and precious stone and is, as you can see from below photograph, absolutely stunning.
You would imagine, given the popularity and sheer volume of his work, that Pierre does not have much time for anything else, but of course, we know that even a man as busy as he, always has time for other things, especially when it comes to family and spending quality time with his wife and children.
Pierre is also very involved with various other projects including Movember East London, with awesome teammates and friends Jono Bruton and Jamie Hogg, and Salty Hour, the local Surfing initiative that has literally exploded onto the scene in Gonubie. Much to the Salty Hour team’s amazement, crowds of people, young and old, turn up every Saturday afternoon, eager to get involved and heed professional coaching from some seriously seasoned local Surfers.
Pierre is, it has to be said, a man of many talents. But he is also, as is to be expected, very modest about these talents.
He is salt of the earth and indeed, of the ocean, the place that he calls home.
For further information on Pierre and his Water Photography and Handcrafted Jewellery, you can click on the following links:
Pierre de Villiers Water Photography Facebook page
Pierre Marc Handcrafted Jewellery Facebook page
You can also find him at PDVIMAGES on Instagram.