Eksteen Jacobsz is a professional photographer, former commercial pilot and twice SAMA-nominated musician based in George, South Africa. His photography combines a lifelong fascination with landscapes, travel, aviation and the outdoors with a strong interest in visual storytelling.
From music to photography
Before photography became his profession, Eksteen spent seven years as a full-time musician under the name The Sick-Leaves. He wrote and performed on four albums — Tunnel Vision (2006), Stone the Crow (2008), Last Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy (2010) and Breaking Away (2012) — and wrote, performed and produced the fifth, Travels with Charlie (2017).
The Sick-Leaves performed at some of South Africa’s major music festivals between 2006 and 2011, including Oppikoppi, Splashy Fen, Ramfest, Rocking the Daisies and Synergy Live.
A passion for landscapes
Eksteen’s passion for landscape photography began on a hiking trip in 2001. Trying to capture the vast scale of the Drakensberg escarpment, he experimented with panoramic photographs using a small point-and-shoot film camera.
When he stitched the printed photographs together, he realised that a single frame could never quite convey the scale he had experienced in the landscape. That fascination has stayed with him ever since.
The mountains and landscapes of the Drakensberg, Victoria Falls, the Zambezi River, Iceland and the Himalayas have left a lasting impression on him.
Born and raised on a farm near Ermelo on South Africa’s cold, flat and windy Highveld, Eksteen grew up surrounded by expansive horizons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was drawn to the landscapes that were missing from home: mountains, rivers, waterfalls and dramatic coastlines.
Commercial photography
Eksteen is a self-taught outdoor photographer who has expanded his work beyond landscapes into commercial, hospitality, tourism, travel, lifestyle and real-estate photography.
His love of nature, aviation, music, travel and the visual arts influences the way he approaches every assignment. Whether photographing a mountain landscape, a luxury lodge, a property or a destination, his aim is to create images that do more than document a place. They should communicate what it feels like to be there.
Aviation
Aviation has been another constant throughout Eksteen’s life. He obtained his private pilot’s licence in 2017 and his commercial pilot’s licence in 2022. He is the third generation of Jacobsz aviators.
His years in aviation also strengthened his understanding of landscape and perspective, giving him another way of seeing the world.
The bigger picture
“I always try to capture the big picture. I focus on impactful storytelling through landscapes and dynamic commercial work.”
Today, Eksteen lives in George in South Africa’s Garden Route, where he continues to photograph the landscapes, people, properties and destinations that inspire him.