At the Trent, we continue to honour Nelson Mandela, a man that we think is one of the greatest men to walk the earth and he will remain so till the end of the time. We are so grateful to bring you images from what is believed to be Madiba’s last photo shoot. Shortly before the late iconic leader retreated from public life in 2011, he was photographers by Adrian Steirn for his 21 Icons Project – a photographic and short-film series profiling the men and women who shaped modern South Africa.
“We were very nervous,” said Steirn, while speaking on the project. “We had the lights set up, Madiba came down and he was so good natured, so good humored. He made the crew feel at ease, and I think that any nerves that we felt were gone. He could see that we were very emotional, and he helped us through the shoot, and it’s something obviously that I’ll be eternally grateful for.”
We are so moved to see that the photo featured Mandela’s favourite people, children. Steirn also described the shoot as both “lighthearted and deeply emotional.”
Check out more images from the 21 Icons series, and see more of Steirn’s photography HERE and his photostream on Flickr HERE.
