Part of the furniture on the sidelines of rugby pitches from Auckland to Paris and Emirates Park to De Rust for the past 62 years, legendary photographer Wessel Oosthuizen shot his final rugby frame last weekend when the Springboks beat the All Blacks at Emirates Park in Johannesburg.
On Tuesday, a surprisingly dry-eyed 81-year-old Oosthuizen told TimesLIVE Premium he had no regrets or items on any bucket lists left to tick in rugby after his more than six-decades-long career.
“It’s goodbye after 62 years. I photographed my first game at Ellis Park at the age of 18 when Diggers played against Springs. My two most recent test matches — against Australia and the All Blacks — I did not file any pictures with the photo agency. The frames were just not up to my personal standards,” Oosthuizen said on Tuesday.
“When I sat down in front of my computer this Saturday evening and looked through the day's images, I realised I just don't have the energy and enthusiasm that I need to do this job properly. I don't want to be remembered as the Joe Biden of rugby photographers,” Oosthuizen grins naughtily.
It’s a game of concentration
“Through the entire match I will be concentrating through my camera. It takes a lot of focus, no pun intended. I am not there to enjoy the game. If you want to talk about the game, we must watch it again later and then talk.
“There is a famous picture of Joel Stransky's 1995 World Cup winning drop goal. In the background you see the line of photographers next to the pitch shooting. One of them, I know him, has both arms thrown into the air in victory. That one second of joy cost him a World Cup winner shot.”
Raised in the Mpumalanga town of Val, for Oosthuizen, a proud Volkie from Hoër Volkskool in Heidelberg (Gauteng), English was a foreign concept when he started out as a newspaperman.
“That was way back in 1961 when I started at Die Vaderland. When I walked in their doors I only knew four English words; 'Yes, no, Ford and Chev.'”
Oosthuizen said early on in his career he was sent to photograph legendary golfer Gary Player.
“When he opened the door in Houghton, I said, 'Middag Oom [Good afternoon Uncle],' but Gary said, 'Ek is nie 'n oom nie, ek is Gary. [I'm not an uncle, I am Gary]'
“For the rest of our careers, whenever we saw each other, Gary would speak Afrikaans to me,” Oosthuizen said.
A signed picture of Player, lying on the green to assess the slope, hangs in Oosthuizen's den on the second floor of his Roodepoort home.
“Aan Wessel. U is die beste [To Wessel. You are the best],' Gary Player wrote.
One of Oosthuizen's most iconic rugby images must be the picture of the flying Frik du Preez.
“It was during the first test against the 1970 All Blacks at Loftus, when Du Preez and Albie Bates tackle Chris Laidlaw. There are three different versions of that picture. Frik's legs are in other positions in the other two. Did I aim to shoot Frik in exactly that moment? I would be lying if I told you I did. Like Gary [Player] said, 'The more you practise, the luckier you get.'”
The last picture I ever took at a Test will for always be of five defeated All Blacks, three of them on their haunches on the Ellis Park grass. There is always that
— Wessel Oosthuizen
He laughs ruefully.
“How many times did I chase back to the office with my winning shot of the player flying through the air to score, only to see in the darkroom that I was a second late and he was already on the ground. You win some you lose some, but to experience either you have to be there.”
The picture became an instant phenomenon in the rugby world and has made the crossover to modern pop culture.
“I see it everywhere and not just because I took the picture. I visited my daughter in Potchefstroom this morning. We went to a place where this picture was massively blown up and hanging on the wall.
“When the owners heard it was my pic and found out I was never asked for permission, they were mortified, but I asked for a ladder and climbed it so I could sign the picture.”
The framed Frik picture, signed by Du Preez, also has a place of pride in Oosthuizen's den.
The inscription from Du Preez reads:
“Wessel, dankie dat jy my op die map gesit het met dié foto. [Wessel, thank you for putting me on the map with this photo.]”
But rugby was not the only sport that attracted Oosthuizen.
“Five Olympic Games, the World Gymnastics Championships, five Rugby World Cups, you name it and I've shot it. There is nothing left to tick on my bucket list.”
While sports photography immediately pulled at his heart strings, Oosthuizen also photographed a wide range of other subjects in his newspaper career, seeing first-hand the changes rolling through South Africa.
“My first political VIP I had to photograph was Hendrik Verwoerd. A few decades later, every time Mister Mandela saw me he asked, 'Mister Oosthuizen, when are you going to retire?' My answer every time was 'Mister President, when you go, I'll go.' Now he has been gone for some time.”
Suddenly he smiles again.
“At least the Boks won both of my last Test matches and the last picture I ever took at a Test will for always be of five defeated All Blacks, three of them on their haunches on the Ellis Park grass. There is always that,” the naughty rugby legend grins.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.