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Alet Pretorius

Member № 0003

Alet Pretorius

Director of Photography and Education

Alet Pretorius is a Pretoria-based photojournalist, visual artist, and lecturer with more than 23 years of experience in news, education, and the arts. Her work explores the coexistence of multiple narratives within a single frame, drawing on the tension between documentation and art. Inspired by photographers like Santu Mofokeng, David Goldblatt, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa, she is interested in how images reveal both the seen and the unseen, what is framed, what is omitted, and what is implied. Known for her calm, people-focused approach, she has covered breaking news and documentary projects across South Africa and the continent, including Somalia, the DRC, and Nelson Mandela’s passing. A former Picture Editor at Beeld, she now freelances for Reuters and Gallo Images, while lecturing at the University of Pretoria, Market Photo Workshop, and Boston Media House. Her work spans photojournalism, multimedia, and visual art, with exhibitions at the Javett Art Centre, Trent Gallery, and residencies at the Ampersand and NIROX Foundations.

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Essays 1 · Frames in archive 10 · Albums 4 · Workshops facilitated 1 · Walks led 2

Essays.

Close-up of a young man holding out a diamante chain with a broken-heart clasp and a pendant reading "NO LOVE".

Public grounds

Newest frames.

A skater in a red Converse shirt in mid-air above his board, pigeons scattering around him, with a palisade fence and a sandstone government building behind.
Church Square, Pretoria · 2025Alet Pretorius

Side Quest Skate & Chill, Church Square, Pretoria, 8 November 2025. A skater lifts off the paving in front of the Palace of Justice and the flock goes up with him. The sessions are run by LES Skate Pretoria in the build-up to the Les Sk8 market at Sunnyside Sports Grounds, and as part of a campaign for a public skatepark in the capital.

Black and white photograph of three people on a city square lawn surrounded by hundreds of pigeons, several birds in flight around their outstretched hands.
Church Square, Pretoria · 2025Alet Pretorius

Church Square, Pretoria, 8 November 2025. Between skate runs the square belongs to the pigeons, and to whoever will stand still long enough to hold one.

Low-angle view of folk dancers in long floral skirts and boots turning on tarmac, with a seated crowd and festival tents behind.
Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria · 2025Alet Pretorius

Kruger 200 concert, Heritage Day, Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria, 24 September 2025. Shot from the tar, the dance comes down to hems, boots and the seated crowd behind them.

A carved stone relief of ox wagons on the Voortrekker Monument's outer wall, with the Pretoria skyline and hills visible behind it.
Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria · 2025Alet Pretorius

Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria, 24 September 2025. The stone wagons of the monument's perimeter laager stand between the viewer and the CBD, with the Union Buildings on the ridge beyond.

Wide view of the Pretoria city centre skyline from a wooded ridge, with the Union Buildings on the hillside to the right and cumulus cloud above.
Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria · 2025Alet Pretorius

Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria, 24 September 2025. The city centre sits low in the bowl with the Union Buildings on the far ridge, seen from the monument on Heritage Day.

Close-up of a young man holding out a diamante chain with a broken-heart clasp and a pendant reading "NO LOVE".
PretoriaAlet Pretorius

A young man lifts his chain away from his chest for the camera, the pendant reading "no love", his face cropped above the mouth. Pretoria, South Africa.

A young man plays a large brass tuba while marching in a city street, another player beside him, with cars, a traffic officer and high-rise buildings around them.
Pretoria · 2021Alet Pretorius

Feast of the Clowns, Pretoria, 16 October 2021. A Field Band Foundation player carries his tuba through the traffic while a metro officer holds the crossing.

A performer in a purple and orange jester costume rides a unicycle down the middle of a city street, with a costumed parade and banners following behind.
Pretoria · 2021Alet Pretorius

Feast of the Clowns, Pretoria, 16 October 2021. A jester rides the centre line ahead of the drums, the banners and the wigs, on a march that is equal parts carnival and protest.

A skater in a red Converse shirt in mid-air above his board, pigeons scattering around him, with a palisade fence and a sandstone government building behind.
Burgers Park, Sunnyside, Pretoria · 2021Alet Pretorius

Feast of the Clowns, Burgers Park, Sunnyside, Pretoria, 16 October 2021. A boy holds his placard above his head on the roots of the park's fig, at the front of the children's rights march.

A young brass player with a tuba in the foreground, and behind him people in clown wigs holding a hand-painted banner reading "Together 4 Children's Rights" under a large tree.
Pretoria · 2021Alet Pretorius

Feast of the Clowns, Burgers Park, Sunnyside, Pretoria, 16 October 2021. A Field Band Foundation player fills the left of the frame while the banner and the painted placards go up under the tree behind him.

Albums.

People walk past the 012Central entrance
Alet Pretorius

In and Out of Frame: A Pretoria City Walk

7 photographs · Saturday, 10 October 2026

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Alet Pretorius

Pinhole Photography Workshop at Botaki Ba Afrika

23 photographs · Saturday, 3 October 2026

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Alet Pretorius followed walk 002 from golden hour on Esselen Street to a rooftop over Sunnyside at dusk and back down to the braai stands after dark.
Alet Pretorius

Night walk, Sunnyside

16 photographs · Saturday, 26 September 2026

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Alet Pretorius
Alet Pretorius

Three layers of the capital by Alet Pretorius

24 photographs · Thursday, 3 September 2026

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Workshops facilitated.

All work © Alet Pretorius. Licensing enquiries go directly to the photographer.