Silvertone International Johannesburg

SONY 2009 PROFOTO LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD was bestowed on Dennis da Silva Having been involved in photography, chemical processing, lithographic reproduction and printing all his working life, Dennis has a repertoire of expertise that few can match and that has been gained through 40 years of hands-on experience. For example, he was one of only a very few technicians in Africa to have mastered the beautiful Kodak Dye Transfer process. Dennis has traveled extensively around England, Europe, and America sharing his knowledge and experience, and continues to keep in close contact with industry forerunners throughout the world about new techniques, technologies and method improvements, thereby ensuring Silvertone is consistently able deliver the highest standard of work. Dennis’s intense love for the photographic image, his eye for composition and artistic expression, and his unwavering support of the medium of photography. His insight into the art of photographic expression has resulted in his informed opinion being sought out by many photographers around the world.

 Dennis has judged and judicatored in many prestigious amateur and professional photographic awards including being a founder member and judge of the "Sony World photography " awards held in France 2008. Of interest to note is that Dennis has been the personal B&W hand printer to the world famous art photographer Roger Ballen for the past 25years. Ballen’s work is housed in private collections, galleries and museums all around the world. [www.rogerballen.com] He is also very involved in the historic alternative printing processes such as the van Dyk brown and cyanotype processes, as well as the difficult salt print method.