Writing on one of the paintings of a photograph taken by a street photographer in Johannesburg (Joburg ArtCity project), Mike Alfred (Sunday Times Lifestyle, September 2002) comments:
Occupying three levels of the Kazerne parking exit of Queen Elizabeth Bridge, Karin Preller offers a grey canvas which shows two women family members Rienie and Petronella, Johannesburg 1950s. Fashionably dressed in the “new look”, as was customary then for a trip into “town”, they were probably shopping. The Lightbody’s (gentlemen’s outfitters) sign is clearly visible.
The painting uses as inspiration an old photo taken by a street photographer. He might possibly have been a rare downtown dark businessman. The two women shopped in a “protected” space in which other races were not absent, but largely invisible. Stuttafords, Ansteys, and John Orrs were exclusive, where haughty, formally costumed shop assistants looked down their narrow white noses. Black people heaved the goods behind the scenes. The picture exudes white nostalgia:
“Let’s take a tram into town this morning; we’ll shop and lunch and then take in a matinee at the Colosseum.” It depicts a world forever gone, certainly not recaptured in Joburg’s magnificent, laager-like, shopping malls. As does Schadeberg, Preller jolts us with remembered history.