Big Skies and Vast Vistas — Tankwa

Tankwa is not a place you pass through.
It is a place you arrive at—and then it stays with you.

Big Skies and Vast Vistas is an immersive film photography experience set deep within the Tankwa Karoo, a landscape defined by scale, silence, and space. Presented by Craig Fouché and Sven Jurgensen, this workshop is designed for photographers drawn to openness—where the subject is not an object, but distance itself.

At the heart of this desert sits Tankwa Padstal—an improbable oasis in the middle of nowhere. Its eccentric installations—half-buried cars, imagined UFOs, weathered structures—offer unexpected compositions that sit in stark contrast to the surrounding emptiness. On occasion, a donkey cart passes quietly through the dust. There is a bar where one can pause, hydrate, and reflect, before returning to the vastness beyond.

Our accommodation lies far from the Padstal, deliberately removed from roads, signal, and distraction. A farmhouse-style retreat, entirely off-grid, powered by solar energy and sustained by borehole water drawn via windmills. There is no Wi-Fi. There are no crowds. At night, the silence becomes almost physical—ringing in your ears as the land exhales.

This workshop is offered in Autumn, when the heat softens and clouds begin to form—adding depth, movement, and drama to Tankwa’s famously open skies. It is a season made for panoramic large format photography, where long horizons, layered skies, and subtle tonal shifts reward patience and precision.

Participants work with 1920s-era cameras, medium format, and large format film systems, provided where required. Guidance is offered one-on-one, allowing each photographer to engage with the landscape at their own pace. Film stocks are selected in advance and allocated to your account, with development, high-resolution scanning, and optional fine printing handled with care.

Simply fly in. Join us.
We take care of the rest.

Tankwa offers no spectacle in the conventional sense. What it offers instead is something rarer—photographic silence. Space to think. Time to see. And the opportunity to make images that reflect stillness rather than noise.

One frame.
Endless sky.
Nothing unnecessary.

Workshop experience dates to be confirmed. Complete our Workshop Enquiries form for more information and early reservation.

Reserve your space now, limited to 5 participants only.