Back to the future in photographs

Melvin Humpel with the Noordhoek Ripper rapists.

Going through some old file photographs taken during the few years that I was freelancing for the local papers, I rediscovered the picture above. The case of the Noordhoek “Ripper rapists” who had viciously attacked and left a woman called Alison for dead in the mid-1990s had made headlines, as had her determination to survive against incredible odds.

I was working for the Evening Post that day and told I would need to photograph the two at their appearance at the North End Law Courts. It was one of many court appearances they would make during the shocking trial and even at this early stage of the case they were already the most reviled of men. Today they remain behind bars and serving out life sentences, although there were recent rumours one of them might be paroled.

Just before leaving Newspaper House I was given a roll of Ilford HP 5 black-and-white film with 12 exposures on it, as that is how Lizzie the darkroom assistant used to bulk-load the film in those days. Lizzie was adamant I had to be back by a certain time in order not to miss the Evening Post deadline around midday.

So off I went out to court and promptly spotted these two walking out accompanied by Melvin Humpel, the ace investigating officer who had helped to bring them to book besides also solving many other high-profile cases during the 1990s and earlier in his career.

There was no time to lose and so I took several shots as they were walking out accompanied by Humpel, who had recently suffered a bad accident to his leg that would later result in an amputation. I was shooting with a wide angle lens and so had to get a little too close for comfort. I took about five shots in all and the one above, with Humpel on the left, and rapists Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger in the centre and on the right respectively. Just before that final shot was taken Du Toit told me to “f*** off out of my face”.

I raced back to the darkroom and the film was processed just in time for print. In those days you didn’t have a screen at the back of the camera to check whether you’d got the shot or not. But intuition was a very important part of your arsenal as a photographer, and even though you couldn’t see it until you were in the darkroom, you somehow always knew whether you had got that shot or not, just as I had known that day.

As part of this “back to the future in photographs” project I was able to track down Melvin Humpel this week, thanks to his daughter. Humpel took early retirement from the Police and today works as a factory manager in Port Elizabeth.

I was pleased when Humpel agreed that I could photograph him for this project. In his office I asked him if there was anything specific he remembered about that day. All he said was that, as tough and scary Du Toit and Kruger had tried to seem, in reality they were just two cowards and all he felt like doing that day was “moering them”.

Melvin Humpel today, in his office in North End.

I shot the photograph of Humpel above using my iPhone, much to his surprise. We had a good laugh about how it would’ve gone down had I pulled out my phone that day outside court to photograph these two. To create the same black-and-white film look from more than 15 years before I used software called Silver Efex Pro which incredibly can simulate all the black-and-white films in use on the market in those days; you can even mimic the filters or the grades of paper used for black-and-white printing. I gave Humpel’s photo the Ilford HP 5 look as in the earlier one.

To view last week’s “back to the future in photographs” post, visit http://pixelweekend.com/2012/02/18/back-to-the-future-in-photographs/