Local photographer produces overnight sensation

Social media is abuzz with a time-lapse video named ‘I am Durban’, which was created over the last 12 months by Sheffield Manor resident Matthew Wilkes, together with Westville photographer, Kierran Allen.

The video showcases the city of Durban, along with scenes on the outskirts of the city, including one looking over Zimbali.

The two minute film has been viewed around 26 300 times in the three days since it was uploaded onto video sharing website, Vimeo.

“We put it up and it just exploded,” said Wilkes.

“We’d seen time lapses of other places and we were looking for one of Durban but we couldn’t find one, so we decided to do it.”

The 25-year-old photographer said he and Allen would go out together and take shots from different angles, later deciding which ones were better for each scene.

“We had to wait for the perfect conditions,” said Wilkes, “the light had to be just right.”

The time-lapse video was created using only still images at 25 frames per second, which means for every second of the video, there are 25 photographs.

According to Wilkes, they have already had three inquiries regarding potential work as a result of ‘I am Durban’.