"Life is on the streets”, is a truism, but Günther Komnick makes the most out of it, understands the meaning of the panoply of lives being lived, and being lived in a social, historical and cultural context.

     The people portrayed are bearers of a cultural DNA that goes back to before Roman times. Layers of being and meaning are seen accumulated on the faces, in the clothes, in the activities of the people, in the way his subjects become extensions of this kaleidoscopic environment. They people, the young, the old, the infirm are going about their daily engagement with each other, trading, talking, laughing, enjoying being immersed in this world that their ancestors have made for them, and they in turn are weaving a web for those who come afterwards to savour.

     Komnick shares this with us, shares his vision, the intimacy of this web of relationships as his camera probes the meaning behind the images. We join him on this journey into the streets with its colours and the gestures as he shows us the interaction between the generations and the liveliness thereof, and the apparent ease with which the unpredictable is absorbed into daily life.

     The streets are festooned with history and colour and one can almost hear the chatter resonating in the alleyways, cafès and in the encounters of people habituated and at ease amongst each other.

Dr Wilhelm Snyman, Auckland, New Zealand