Orms recently had the pleasure of partnering with Zach Louw, a self-taught photographer based in Dublin who loves environmental portraits.
Louw has always loved the art of storytelling. Growing up, he looked for ways to set himself apart from his identical twin brother. He found himself creating narratives about people through images.
This process got him thinking, “What is the most common photograph in the world?” With the common misconception about the mainstream nature of school portraits, Louw realised from his travels around the country how many families did not have access to them.
In 2016 he travelled across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. Here he spent time zooming in on the importance and value placed on education in these areas. It was with this understanding that the importance of the school portrait took shape. Using only a mobile phone and a low-cost studio, Louw captured hundreds of students in his series, ‘The School Portrait Project’.
Orms is proud to have partnered with Zach on his most recent project with the Thomas Wildschutt Primary School. Together, we were able to photograph and produce school portraits for 480 children.
Louw’s photographs have been exhibited in Berlin, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Los Angeles. In 2016, Zach embarked on a joint photographic venture called Everyday Education, celebrating leaders and learners along the Sub-Saharan eastern corridor of Africa. Since the project started, the work has been exhibited in multiple African cities.
He is also recognised by the global Instagram community and has garnered a following of 90K people from around the world across his Photographic Social Media channels; Instagram and EyeEm.
