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if you’ve been lucky enough to visit the Wild Coast in South Africa you might have come upon some super chill cows having a great day at the beach. it is always a delight for me to see the cows when we travel to Kei each year for our summer holidays, they even gate-crashed our engagement!

photographer Christopher Rimmer wonderfully captures these beach loving herds in his series Amapondo. you can also buy prints of the series at his online shop.

The Amapondo* people are a sub-branch of the Xhosa tribe and live on South Africa’s beautiful and wild east Coast. Pondo cattle visit the beach every day and reports from shipwrecked sailors stranded on the coast from the 16th Century onwards suggests they have been doing so for a long time, but no one is quite sure why. Whatever the explanation for this curious behaviour, photographer Christopher Rimmer’s large scale and graphically striking portraits appear surreal, perhaps because we have been visually conditioned to anticipate cattle with pasture as a backdrop by centuries of artistic tradition.

hey, i know why cows visit the beach: cause it’s rad. why WOULDN’T you visit the beach?

* just FYI the actual spelling is amaMpondo (but you could say that it is pronounced as ‘amapondo’). i have left the title as the photographer named the series.

Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo

Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo Amapondo

Miss Moss

Hey! I'm Miss Moss. But you can call me Diana. This blog is a means of curating and sharing my love for visual treasures. Learn more about me here.

11 Comments

  • Jardzy says:

    Flawless!!!

  • Sabs says:

    My obsession with cows has long been facilitated by your numerous posts of them! :)

  • Kate M says:

    Great photographs. I read in a magazine that he called the series Amapondo after the back packers of the same name where he stayed in Port St Johns during the making of the series in 2013. The former owner was a bit of a drinker apparently and it was a running joke that he spelt the name of his business incorrectly. So the name refers with affection to a particular location but of course is also a nod to the beautiful Pondo people who husband these amazing cows.

    • Miss Moss says:

      aah good to know! i wish that they would have included that snippet in the description of the work, because it could be confusing.

  • Marina Vermeulen (@wineauxx) says:

    WANT: A print from photographer Christopher Rimmer’s series Amapondo. http://t.co/E9UhnWsuMs

  • mun says:

    Absolutely UNREAL x

  • @Jacqueline_E_B says:

    Very good call, South African cows MRT @miss_moss The beach-loving herd of the Wild Coast http://t.co/QqiVG06EW3 http://t.co/h3LzhkHMk3

  • Tamsin says:

    I love these photos SO much.

  • becky hutner says:

    I love cows and & I love these photos!!! Thanks for the rec.

    http://canadianinlosangeles.com

  • Milisuthando Bongela says:

    This is amazing, just a note though, the spelling of Amapondo is incorrect, it’s Amampondo

    • Miss Moss says:

      yep – i noted that in my intro.

      i’ve heard subsequently that he named the series after a backpackers there that is called “Amapondo” and everyone thinks it’s hilarious that the owner spelled the name wrong. or something like that.