Lawrence Symonds !
I don’t know what makes him more interesting, the fact that he calls himself 'Sizwe' or what inspires his craft. He is one individual driven by his surroundings, and his biggest influence is street culture. He has mastered the art of staying humble while his craft can allow him to be boastful.
INTERESTING FACTS
The nickname 'Sizwe' comes from his nanny who basically raised him but some university friends say, they gave him the name due to the fact that he ignored racial differences.
He is a Graphic Design Honours student at University of Johannesburg.
He is only 22 years old.
Lawrence currently works with the iconic sneaker store DIPSTREET based in Braamfontein. His love for photography started during his educational journey at The University of Johannesburg, when he and a group of friends started a group called the “Secret Society”, this allowed him to improve on his skills.
All these decisions allowed him to start working and even branding his work with the name Heartbreaks X Heroin, which later changed to Wandering Souls.
His reasoning behind naming his work “.Wandering Souls” is the fact that he compares himself and people around him to dinosaurs because each and everyday people do wonder around finding themselves or what fulfills their greatest fantasies and these are the reasons why some days can be more enlightening than others, but nonetheless these experiences make us the people we are and Lawrence is walking testimony of this because his university experiences have made him the Photographer and Designer he is today.
Many photographers have different preferences on what they like shooting, some like taking pictures of different scenery, others location and love making art from models or products. We have a wonderful case of being an all-rounder when it comes to Lawrence but he would leave everything and keep architecture and location if it allows him to travel the world.
Lawrence has worked with many brands like The Pre Release, Unknown Union, DIPSTREET and every brand within the Dip Street store itself. His high interest in street culture comes from his first year in varsity, when he was still his nerdy self and had not found the one thing that would make him stand out and due to his relations in first year he found himself in a crowd of fashion oriented people and this in return gave him experience, style and inspiration.
Lawrence looks up to photographers like Kane Holz who is based in Germany and when one takes a look at Kane’s’ photography and his inspiration it won’t come as a surprise that Lawrence looks up to him. An interesting fact about Lawrence is that he doesn’t compare himself to other photographers but has reached certain mile stones like his exhibition which took place in Maboneng on the 2nd of June 2017. He Is one young creative with an intense work ethic and respected for that, not just by The Pre Release by everyone who knows him and the work his has done.
Wandering Souls is growing as a well-crafted brand and will be a force to recon with in the next coming years, so keep wandering and stop sleeping.
