South Africa got television rather late in the day. I was well into my twenties and I had never seen television. You read about it in Time magazine, saw it in the movies, but never in the flesh. Our then Nationalist Party government minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Dr Albert Herztog, discribed it as an 'evil black box'.

In 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon we were one of the few countries unable to watch the event live. I can remember the event vividly having had to listen on the radio.

My first encounter with television was in 1973 when I was sent to Botswana of all places on an ethnograhic field trip. Here at the Holiday Inn in Gaboronne I had my first chance to watch it. It was of such significance, even if it was only in black and white, that I decided to record the moment in my hotel room with my Pentax Spotmatic.

The government of the day relented in 1976 and we were finally treated to the 'delights' of Dallas, The World at War and Starsky and Hutch.

Holiday Inn, Gaboronne, 1973

 John Kramer was born in Worcester, Western Cape in 1946. At school he received tuition at the Hugo Naude Art Centre, Worcester and majored in painting at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. In 1968 he won the Michaelis prize. He holds a diploma in Fine Art.  In 1970 he joined the South African Museum where he was head of the Exhibitions division for many years. During his museum career he designed and, with his team, built many displays and exhibitions. He also had the opportunity to visit most  major museums and galleries in Canada, USA, Israel, Paris and London. Although he had a fulltime job he continued to paint at night and weekends and participated in many group shows.  In the 1980's he had two successful one-man exhibitions. In 2002 he left the museum to pursue a full-time painting career.  His work is represented in many private, corporate and public collections, including the South African National Gallery, Durban Art Gallery and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth. He is married and has two sons. Lives in the Gardens, Cape Town and Onrus.  

• Biography

• Examples of paintings