SAM HASKINS

Sam Haskins (1926 – 2009) was a British photographer, born and raised in South Africa. He started his career in Johannesburg and moved to London in 1968. Haskins is best known for his contribution to in-camera image montage. He started his career as an advertising photographer in Johannesburg in 1953. He produced commercial work across a very broad spectrum of photography from still life to industrial, fashion and aerial. His international reputation and his signature photographic passions were established by four key books published in the 1960s. Five Girls (1962), Cowboy Kate & Other Stories (1964), Haskins Posters (1973), November Girl (1967) and African Image (1967).

Cowboy Kate & Other Stories deliberately explored black-and-white photographic grain as a medium for expression and design. It was highly influential at the time, selling roughly a million copies worldwide and won the Prix Nadar in France in 1964. It continues to influence contemporary photographers, film makers, fashion designers and make-up artists. Cowboy Kate & Other Stories or ‘Kate’ had its place in photographic history cemented in 2005 when the ICP in New York included the book in their exhibition The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present.