PHOTOGRAPHY
Alex Dodd: "I find your photographs energetic, deeply human and embracing of radical difference.
You always seem to capture the most glorious of fleeting moments, at that split second just before the instant has dissipated."
ASTA: I cannot express how I feel when I look at your images - it is such an intense nearly physical experience, as if I somehow become part of the photos as well. You are an incredible artist and your work is really changing the world.
Molly Smit: “You find the magic every time!”
Shirley Lowe: “You are deeply and importantly talented"
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: "Classic Noodle, magical visionary"
Ernestine Dean: "What a wonderful artist you are sister.
Your images are magic"
Gabby Van Heerden: “Nicky your photography just gets better and better…
you take my breath away with your magical eye!”
Tessa Weston: “Sometimes, when I want to feel joyful and connected to humanity,
I look through your photo albums.
They have such spirit!”
Amanda Gazidis: “You do really capture the spirit and essence of your subjects …
what a perceptive artist/photographer you are!!!
I'm astounded!!”
Cate Wood Hunter: Nicky Newman this image in front of Distrix 6 museum is mind blowing.
It's like a Renaissance engraving which would have been of Biblical or mythological scenarios and people but it is a contemporary parable that speaks so powerfully to the SA and global economic and social divides and inequalities.
It is a masterpiece.
Samuel Johnson "Nicky, what a privilege it is to receive your work. You improve every year, month in month out. I don't know how you do it. The technical brauvra is dazzling enough, but somehow the Nicky Newman we know and love always comes through. You have "perspective" and are one of the few artists I know who has the gift of allowing people to see the world through your eyes.
More and more you're like a great chef who can take familiar ingredients
and creatively enhance or transform the daily diet of life into something
gloriously anew.
I'm a fan."
FILM
Email from Florence del Santo – producer for NY Times Television/Granada film, World Birth Day:
Subject: Charmaine
Nicky… I had to interrupt my logging to send you this message.
You shot a sequence of Charmaine in hard labor pain that is so beautiful I can’t believe it.
Your instinct to move in exactly the right direction is amazing.
It could have been just another in an endless series of painful labor shots but you made magic out of it. I can’t explain how soulfully you shot this sequence.
I showed it to Molly and Silvia… we call it a poem of pain.
I know you were working on raw gut at that point because I know how tired you were.
It really stands out … you have a great eye and great instincts.
I’ll send you the clip if it would do you any good for resume reel, etc.
A bunch of other stuff is good too, but as I said I just watched it and had to tell you about it….. more soon.
Florence
Derek Wilson – Friday 15th July 2005 – The Argus Newspaper: Review on A Family Affair
The cinematography is quite beautiful and the camera never seems obtrusive.
There is no hint of patronization.
Expressing my admiration to Newman after seeing the film, I told her I wished it hadn’t been so short.
From: “Frieda Werden”
To: “Nicky Newman / See Thru Media”
Subject: congratulations!
This afternoon we had a screening of Not Just a Number and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Great flick! Truly.
Tonight it received Honourable Mention in the IAWRT’s awards and everyone cheered.
Gundel received the award for you.
The news will go out in a press release tomorrow.
Email feedback from a fellow filmmakers about A Family Affair
Dear Nicky,
I watched your movie last night on telly and just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it and that it left me thinking about your characters for a long time afterwards.
I think you really captured that intimacy that I so often wish for in a documentary and so seldom experience. I also think your editing was really good: the whole piece never lost pace – or pathos – or my interest, throughout.
So, many congratulations, Regards Athalie
Hi Nicky Newman
Managed to keep my eyes open to watch your film and I think it was sensitive and most gentle.
A different feel, not condescending like so many of the documentaries I usually see on TV … which is why I rarely watch. And so tenderly edited.
I hope the process was as good as the film.
Tina-Louise Smith
Building bridges through art – SA/USA partnership
From: Lesley Perkes
Subject: USA love
Hey Nicky
the Americans are knocked out and weeping over your video.
thought you’d want to know
Les
TEACHING / MENTORING
It’s never easy to find focus when you’re making a film, more so a documentary.
As meticulous you try to be, it can go in any way, the more you think you have control, the less you have it.
It was clear I needed guidance, a sense of direction, a voice that would be clearer than my own;
Nicky Newman was that for me.
An incredible woman, filmmaker and educator that showed me clarity and pointed me in the right direction when all I was looking at was chaos.
She’s a rare force of honesty wrapped in unwavering passion, without her, my first adventure into the world of documentary filmmaking would have been a failure.
My film “Conway On A Monday” was all thanks to her and the wisdom she shared with me.
For that and more, I’m forever grateful.
Ibtisem Ben Nassib
Writer/Director/Photographer
Clients
Some of the people I’ve photographed, filmed and interviewed along the way (the well known ones anyway) …
Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Sting, REM, Femi Kuti, Salief Keita,
Dennis Hopper, Sigourney Weaver, Spike Lee,
Gill Scott Herron, Susan Bucha, Blk Sonshine,
Brenda Fasi, Honeymoon Suites, Springbok Nude Girls, Dead Prez, Manu Debango, Mutabaruka,
Third World Bunfight, Back Door Initiative, Zap Dragons, Pieter Dirk Uys,
Steven Cohen, Mzwaki Mbuli, Thabo Mbeki, Albertina Sisulu, Mary Robinson,
Busi Mhlongo, Danny K, Prince Charles and so many fabulous others
Selected clients:
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New York Times/Granada Television for Discovery Channel
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Juniper TV for Channel 4
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SABC TV1 and 3
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Arts Alive, Johannesburg
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Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town
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The Sunday Times
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Provincial Dept of Development Planning and Local Government
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Kagiso Educational Television
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WITS TV
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African Business Channel (ABC)
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Aland Pictures
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Pieter Dirk Uys
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Irit Noble
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Karen Vundla, Lebone Women on the Move
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DO Productions
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Encounters International Documentary Film Festival
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Johannesburg City Council
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Fresh Music, Blk Sonshine
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University of Cape Town: Lung Institute
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SAB Art Collection
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Enlightenment Productions
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Friends of Tembaletu
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Housing Development Agency