About Géran

Géran Raath is a commercial still life photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa, working through his company Source Tree. His photography practice focuses on product, still life and object-led lifestyle work for advertising, with a working process that includes composite photography and tabletop stop motion. Prior to photography, Géran spent a decade in the South African motion picture industry as a Steadicam® Operator, with credited experience across camera, lighting, grip and art departments. He also brings sixteen years of operations management experience (2009–2025) to the production and delivery side of his commercial work.

Recognition

• Emerging Talent Spotlight Awards 2025 — Shortlist, Top 10

• Mythology-Inspired, LOOSENART, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy — Selected Works, 2024

• Official Selection and Honorable Mention for "Suketchio Maiko" Category: Special Effects (IPA 2023)

• MIMESIS Exhibition Selected Works 2023 (LOOSENART - MILLEPIANI, ROME, ITALY)

• Honorable Mention (PX3 PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS, Juried Awards 2022)

Géran Raath — Product & Still Life Photographer, Cape Town

I make still life for advertising. Products, objects, the strange geometry of things you're supposed to want.

My eye was built by two things that shouldn't go together: the raw, quiet vastness of the South African landscape I grew up walking, and the plastic-and-neon glow of 1980s sci-fi cinema. That collision — the natural and the fabricated, the ordinary object treated like a specimen from another world — is what I chase in every frame. Graphic. Cinematic. Slightly off-world.

Before I picked up a camera commercially, I spent ten years inside the motion picture industry as a Steadicam operator, working across camera, lighting, grips and art department on productions where a wrong move cost the day. That grounding is why I over-invest in pre-production. When the shot list, references and lighting plan are agreed on paper, the shoot day becomes execution — not problem-solving. Producers hire me because I don't burn their schedule.

I work out of Cape Town's professional studio infrastructure, with my own dedicated testing space for R&D, lighting studies and stop motion development between commissioned jobs. My commercial toolkit spans Profoto, StobeX and Broncolor flash for classical still life, constant lighting when the brief calls for something more filmic, and stop motion capture for TVC and social work. Every plate and every texture in a composite is shot by me for the brand it belongs to — post is treated as part of the image, not a rescue mission.

Recent commissioned work has come from European agencies, including campaign work for home and lifestyle brands. I'm open to conversations with agencies, art buyers and producers looking for a South African production base with European sensibilities.