Eksteen Jacobsz is a twice SAMA-nominated professional musician, professional photographer and commercial pilot.
As musician, Eksteen wrote and performed, under the alias of The Sick-Leaves, his first four albums (Tunnel Vision [2006], Stone the Crow [2008], Last Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy [2010], Breaking Away [2012]) and also produced his fifth, Travels with Charlie [2017].
The Sick-Leaves performed between 2006 and 2011 at various South African music festivals, including Oppikoppi, Splashy Fen, Ramfest, Rocking the daisies and Synergy Live Festival.
The seed for Eksteen’s landscape photography passion was planted on a hiking trip in 2001. Attempting to capture the majestic grandeur of the vast Drakensberg escarpment, he experimented by shooting panoramas on a small point and shoot film camera.
Seeing the results by stitching the printed photos together, he’s been driven ever since to portray the scale of expansive landscapes through his photography.
Landscapes such as the Drakensberg, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, Iceland and the Himalayas has left an indelible impression on him.
Eksteen was born and raised on the cold, flat, windy, water-scarce inland Highveld plateau of South Africa on a farm near Ermelo.
Although this region shaped him, it lacks his favourite landscape subjects, mountains and water, hence his drive to spot the next mountain range or waterfall.
Eksteen’s a self-taught outdoor photographer. His love for nature, aviation, the visual arts, music and travel has led him to expand his photography abilities to skillfully cover lifestyle, airshows, music performances, residential and commercial real estate, tourism and travel accommodation.
Eksteen obtained his private and commercial pilot licenses respectively in 2017 and 2022. He is the third generation of Jacobsz aviators.
His motivation to encapsulate the next photograph? “I always try to capture the big picture. The challenge is to make the landscape as big in the photograph as when I stood there seeing it. That is the endless pursuit.”
Eksteen currently resides in George, South Africa with his fiancé Ilse and their two kids.