Then & Now Portraits in Johannesburg
A portrait of what time has carried
There was a time when they fit in your arms.
Now they stand beside you.
And somewhere between those two moments, a life unfolded.
Then & Now grew from something I have that cannot be created overnight: twenty years of photographing people.
Children I photographed as babies are now young adults.
Families have grown. Relationships have changed. People have left and returned.
And the photographs I made years ago are still there.
Then & Now brings those earlier portraits together with photographs I make of the same people today.
Not to recreate what we did before.
To see what time has done to their meaning.
The portrait session
I will direct you throughout the session.
Where to stand. Where to look. What to do with your hands.
But I am also watching for what happens between those instructions.
A glance. A hand reaching for another. The way people who have known each other for years naturally stand together.
Those are often the photographs that matter.
The earlier portrait gives us a starting point.
We don't need to reproduce it.
We are making the portrait that belongs to now.
Who Then & Now is for
Then & Now is for people I have photographed before.
It may have been five years ago. Ten. Fifteen. Or nearly twenty.
You may have come to me with a newborn, a small child, a teenager or your whole family.
Perhaps I photographed a mother and daughter who now stand almost the same height.
Perhaps the tiny boy I photographed years ago now towers over his mother.
The photograph itself hasn't changed.
You have.
And that is where Then & Now begins.
What time does to meaning
When I first made those earlier photographs, they meant one thing.
Years later, they can mean something entirely different.
A small gesture becomes important.
A hand that once steadied a child is suddenly noticed.
The way someone looked at someone else carries more weight.
The photograph hasn't acquired anything new.
Time has.
Then & Now places those two moments beside each other.
Not simply to show what changed.
But to see what remained.
Investment
Your session fee is R3,000.
Before your session, you will choose one of three portrait collections.
Foundation
A smaller collection of finished portraits.
Signature
More photographs, allowing us to explore different relationships and combinations.
Legacy
A fuller body of work for those who would like to keep more of what we create together.
Collection details and current pricing are available on enquiry.
After your session
After your session, you will view the photographs and choose your final portraits.
Each selected image is individually finished and professionally retouched.
Additional portraits may be added if there are more you would like to keep.
Your portraits can also become finished pieces for your home.
For Then & Now, an album can be particularly beautiful because photographs made years apart can live together in one place.
→ View portrait finishes
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes an earlier photograph may suggest a gesture, position or relationship worth revisiting.
But the purpose is not to reproduce the past.
It is to photograph who you are now.
Five years can change a great deal.
Twenty years can change almost everything.
What matters is that enough time has passed for the two photographs to have something to say to each other.
I will guide you before the session according to who is being photographed and the earlier portraits we are working with.
You don't need to know what to do in front of a camera.
See Then & Now
The portraits themselves tell this story better than I can.
→ View Then & Now portraits
Begin your Then & Now portrait
If I photographed you years ago and you would like to see what those photographs might mean beside portraits made today, I would love to hear from you.
I photographed you then.
Let's make the now.
→ Get in touch
There are photographs that show how someone looked.
And there are photographs that hold what was lived.
JOHANNESBURG PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
One Moment. One Portrait. Forever
© 2005–2026 Bridget Corke Photography
Blairgowrie · Johannesburg · South Africa
International Master's in Portrait Photography
One of only two in Africa.