Imagery by Oski Studios and Vuyo Polson.

Developed at Cape Film Supply.

“Butchery”, by Grace Mettler and Nick Farmer

I bought my first camera from a man named Christo on Gumtree. I was a student, nearing the end of my undergrad in 2023, and I had enjoyed the hundreds of images I took on my phone. I searched for cameras and came across a Pentax K1000 on the website, and promptly bought it (blowing my entire student budget for the month). When it arrived, I ran into an issue: I didn’t know anything about cameras, much less film cameras. In fact, I didn’t even know where to get the film.

Asking around led me to Cape Film Supply, where I was greeted by Nick. The first thing I told him was that I knew nothing about cameras, film, and wanted some advice on which roll to get started with. He immediately gave me the rundown – what does what, and how. Film stocks. Exposure. Kodak. The Sunny 16 rule. Even how to load my camera. Before that day I felt like I spent a lot of money and was out of my depth. When I left the store, I was inspired. And the rest was history. I never stopped shooting from that day. Photography became more than a hobby, more than a passion. It’s now my bedrock.

Fast forward to 2025 – I join VERVE and grow into the art director role. Nick and his partner, Grace, start Oski Studio – a Cape Town-based creative partnership on a mission to create imagery that feels intimate and considered. I sat down with Nick and Grace, in what felt like a full-circle moment, to hear their story. Seeing as they shoot exclusively on film, it only felt right to bring a roll of Kodak ColorPlus for the occasion.

Firstly, what is OSKI?

Nick: We get asked this all the time (laughter)

Grace: I mean, it’s evolved. It started with Nick being the photographer and me being the creative director, and we’d come together to shoot different things. Now I feel like it’s more of a partnership or duo. I bought my first camera a few months ago. Now, I feel like the both of us just collaborate. He also creative directs now. So when we show up to a shoot, the both of us just work fluidly together.

Nick: And then sometimes it’ll start off with me being the first camera and Grace the second camera. But now it’s kind of molded together. The last shoot we did with the Barry’s, Grace ended up shooting and doing everything, and I was kind of like the assistant.

Grace: Nick’s also very technical. He knows all those sorts of things with photography. I feel like I’m more of the business person, and he’s the technical film or lighting guy. Obviously, because he also works at a lab.

Nick, that must mean you’ve been shooting for a while now?

Nick: Yeah, I’ve been shooting, and I have a background in assisting as well, so it kind of just made sense. It’s cool, and I was talking to someone about this last night, but Grace’s lack of technical know-how makes her a better photographer in this weird way.

She doesn’t seem to have boundaries or any sort of technical walls that she sets up. She just shoots and doesn’t really care about the technical aspects. And her photos are just incredible. I’ve watched her grow over the past year or two, and her photos are amazing.

Whereas I worry about the technical stuff, which makes her job really easier because she knows I’ll just be caring about the lighting while she focuses on the other parts.

So you’ve been shooting for how long?

Nick: I started when I was seventeen, so I’m giving my age away, but it’s been thirteen years. I started of digital and started freelancing towards the end of high school, and then I worked for Puma, New Balance, and a lot of the club scene.

I then got the job at Cape Film Supply, and I’ve worked there for about four years. A bit recently, is when I completely stopped shooting digital. I don’t own a single digital camera except for my camcorder, and Grace is pretty much the same. She doesn’t want anything to do with digital.

And for you Grace, you’ve been shooting for a year or two, right? What about before that?

Grace: Yeah, well, I wasn’t really shooting at all before.

Nick: She always loved photography, though.

What was your practice before you picked a camera up then?

Grace: I don’t know…I mean, I’m still young. I mean, before this, I was creative directing, organizing, and stylizing things.

Nick: I think the shift is when Grace got a new camera. The camera she was using was my old Nikon F3, and it’s not very beginner-friendly because it’s manual focused. She’d just be more stressed out about the camera, and she wouldn’t get to focus on the photos.

It was a no-brainer because I knew someone who had a camera that had auto-focus. It could shoot both manual and auto. Ever since that is what I think truly helped her blossom. She wouldn’t have to continue worrying if her camera was focused.

But before that, she was creatively directing. She’s being very humble, but she was creative directing, producing, styling, and doing all kinds of things. She’s very humble, and even now she’s doing all the heavy lifting, and she’s the brains of the entire operation.

Also, the studio is named after Oscar (their cat), and we just named it OSKI, his nickname. He’s the CEO of this operation, and Grace was the one who came up with the name.

Grace: The name sounds cool as well.

“New Balance”, by Nick Farmer and Grace Mettler.

When did OSKI start and what sparked the idea?

Grace: We started in March last year. In terms of the idea, we were thinking about it in the December while we were in the Karoo. We love shooting together, and I loved creating scenes, and I just needed someone to photograph it.

I’d tell Nick to shoot something for me and turn it into something. It was then a thing of wanting to see what we could try to do. I think we did our first shoot in March when Amelie came to our apartment, and we shot in our apartment.

We just fell in love with it and set up a bunch of different shoots, and we found it to be really fun. We hadn’t done very conventionally. It just kind of started, and it just started throwing things back at us. We only got a domain like a month ago (laughter).

Nick: The first few shoots, I was posting on my Instagram.

Grace: Yeah, we didn’t even have an Instagram yet until like three months ago.

Nick: Funnily enough, we did Grace’s mom's company headshots, and her mom jokingly said that we should start a studio together. We laughed it off, but lo and behold, it kind of sat with us.

Grace: It was always in the back of our minds, but we weren’t really sure if we wanted to try that. I think we just got the ball rolling, and it continued from there.

Nick: And then it got very hectic very quickly. Another reason why we wanted to do it together was because my main body of work is more documentary or still-life. Now our style is a bit more merged.

We’re trying to merge both documentary and editorial together, whereas Grace’s mind is very much conceptual, very clean, and planned out in mind, while I struggle with all of that. I struggle a lot with conceptualizing shoots.

If someone sends me a brief to shoot something, that’s one thing. But to bring something to life from nothing, which Grace is good at, is what I struggle with. It made sense for us to put my technical know-how with Grace’s conceptual brain, and it’s been successful so far.

“in the flower market” by Nick Farmer and Grace Mettler

If a client had to hit you up for a project, what would the creative process be for the two of you?

Grace: I think it usually starts with me. I’ll see what we’re being asked and I’ll start conceptualizing. I’d usually create some kind of mood board based on things. I collect a lot of things, so I use that as inspiration.

Once everything’s put together on this mood board, we’ll talk about it. Then it’s the process of looking for models, stylists, or makeup artists. We’ll find someone who has the same style for what we’re trying to create. It’s a lot of messaging and reaching out to people and seeing who can do what, finding locations, and scheduling the dates and times of the shoot and everything. Nick will develop everything, and then I do all the editing.

Nick: In the beginning, I edited everything. I have my own style of grading, but because it’s Grace’s vision, we wouldn’t butt heads, but it just got frustrating for Grace because she’d have to explain to me what she’d want for the end product. Eventually, she decided she’d just do it herself (laughter).

Grace: Well, I was editing my photos, and he was still editing his photos. We’d come together, and they wouldn’t look the same at all. It would look like they were shot from two different locations.

Nick: Yeah, so with Grace, she handles everything from the beginning, whether that’s us reaching out or we’ve been reached out to. If we’re hit up with a brief, Grace will still make a board and a written brief summarising what the vibes are.

We’ll then shoot, and it’ll go to the lab. I’ll work on that whole lab process by myself, and I’ll scan it myself, which helps our turnaround immensely. We have the privilege of working at the lab, and I get to tweak my scans. By the time it gets to Grace, it’s at a point where she can now create. We’ve got it all figured out, but on the way, we’re still making tweaks to our process.

Through doing this, what have you guys learned the most about each other?

Grace: I think I’ve learned that Nick is not good at planning (laughter). But, he’s a very good people person. We also both make each other comfortable, and that’s where the magic happens. You’re not afraid to shoot someone and make them uncomfortable because you’re already comfortable with this person.

If I go and shoot someone by myself, I do feel a bit insecure. But when we do it together, we give each other crazy amounts of confidence, and we’re constantly shooting ideas at each other. We’ll shoot something for like an hour, and it’ll feel so fast. Everything just flows so well.

Nick: My first solo shoot in a while was yesterday, and I was wondering why I was so anxious on the way there and while on set. I realised that it was the first shoot I had done without Grace. It made me realise that it’s so nice to have somebody there with you.

It does help that we’ve been dating for three years and we live together. But it’s nice having somebody that can hold you accountable but also be your peace while on set. We can look at each other telepathically, and we can talk to each other without saying a word.

Grace: It’s also knowing that you’re backed by someone. It’s knowing I want this, and him knowing exactly what I want. And he’s going to make that happen.

Nick: I think that’s what I’ve learned about myself. I like collaboration. I like working with people. I’ve always shot by myself, doing the solo missions. I just didn’t realise how much I liked working with somebody.

But yeah, I also did learn that I’m not good at admin and conceptualizing. Grace is the opposite of that. I wouldn’t say she’s Type A. She’s just very well planned, she has everything written down, she’s got the Excel spreadsheets, and all those things which aren't my forte. That’s where Grace comes in.

Grace: Thanks to the business degree! (laughter)

Because you two have that dynamic, do you think OSKI will always just be the two of you?

Grace: We’ve definitely been inviting other people into it. OSKI is the foundation, but we’d love to get stylists and others involved, and where there’s more people, is when it becomes so much better. When other people’s creative brains come together, is when things get better.

Nick: The only reason why it’s just the two of us now is because it was just the two of us who started. But we’ve always spoken about how we’ll eventually have not retainers but people we can trust. If a brand comes to us and they have a brief that wants a certain type of look, a certain makeup look, a certain styling, we want to eventually have a bunch of people we can call up and make sure to get the project done, whether they’d be represented by OSKI or they work at a larger studio or office space.

“we’re getting married” by Nick Farmer and Grace Mettler

Is there a big dream for OSKI? Or are you guys taking it a day at a time?

Grace: We’re definitely taking it a day at a time. We don’t really know where it’s going to head. A lot of the time, it’s keeping it as a duo. Then suddenly we’re working with other people, and suddenly we’re a studio.

Nick: Yeah, for now it’s just handling what we can. And if it gets out of hand, we’ll bring people on board. For now, it’s just Grace and Nick. That’s not to say we won’t work with others because we’ve worked with many others already.

So there’s already a community that you guys have built?

Nick: For sure, yeah.

Grace: A lot of people just reach out on Instagram, you meet people in the Cape Town scene, and I guess you’ll meet someone like a stylist, and now it’s a thing of wanting to do something with them. We say yes to everything! We actually haven’t said no to anyone.

Nick: Yeah, recently we’re in a position where we kind of have to say yes to many things. Mainly for our portfolio, as well as networking and stretching our brand profile.

Grace: We only say no if the project doesn’t align with our brand. We just don’t have the time for that.

What’s the reaction been like? Have you guys found it overwhelming at times or you’re still chilling?

Nick: We actually spoke about this the other time. It was weird in the beginning when we had like 150 followers and people were DMing us and stuff like that.

Grace: It’s weird when going out as well. I remember on a First Thursday when someone I had never met came up to me and told me they loved our work. I couldn’t process that feeling.

Nick: It’s overwhelming in that sense because we weren’t expecting such a positive response. People that we look up to are giving us our flowers in our early stage. Our creative journey has been very overwhelming in a good kind of way. I don’t know if it’s imposter syndrome, but when these big stylists or big photographers give you your flowers, it’s quite humbling in a way. It’s exciting, and it makes us want to go that much harder.

If there was any sort of advice you could give out to someone who’d like to do something similar to what you guys are doing, what would that be?

Grace: Just do it. Just start it. Even if you start and it’s shit, just work harder. The more you do it, the better you get at it, and the more you’ll learn as you go.

Comparing our first work to where we are now, you just learn by doing it, and you will be able to see that over time. You can think about it so much, but the only thing you can do is to just do it.

Nick: Also, don’t be scared to fail. That’s how you’ll learn and grow. Also, start your Instagram early, get that domain early, don’t think you’re than your boots, and don’t say no to collaborations.

Get your portfolio up. Do shit for free in the beginning. Obviously, exposure doesn’t pay the bills, but once you believe your portfolio is good enough is when you can expect compensation.

Grace: But in the beginning, do a lot of free stuff.

Nick: All the jobs that we’ve received was directly because of our portfolio, and all those shoots were collaborative efforts. Sometimes those were even free favours.

Grace: You may not realise how much that’ll help, but it will help you blow up in the future. Doing a free shoot for a friend might end up doing something for you in the future.

To close off, how would you describe the creative landscape of South Africa right now, and where do you see it heading?

Grace: I think it’s been a lot more creative. For me, that’s what I’ve been seeing. I think because we’re so fed up with capitalism, it culminated that. People are now stepping into being more creative.

Nick: Yeah, and the people want more freedom, occupational freedom. We live in the most beautiful city in the world, why would I spend my whole day of sunlight in an office? I’d much rather spend those days doing something that I’m passionate about.

I was also very scared of the cliqueness in Cape Town before I moved here, but so far, it’s been very supportive from what we’ve seen. Culturally, we’re just so spoiled. Creatively as well. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Joburg, but from what I’ve seen in Cape Town, the amount of different things being done is crazy.

A photographer is not just a photographer. A Xhosa photographer has their outlook on the culture compared to somebody who grew up with a different background. It’s cool to see all these different kinds of influences in Cape Town, and it’s very inspirational.

Grace: I also think the creative people are more likely to help other creatives. There are other creatives willing to do things for free, and they want to do it for their own creative expression. That’s what I see, and that's quite a nice thing to have.

It’s safe to say that Oski is thriving. The growth has been incredible, and the quality of work has managed to get better with each project. To hear what went into planting those roots is something I hope everybody reading resonated with. The art of trying, playfully and honestly, to do what is nearest and dearest to your heart.

Just as Grace and Nick continue to grow into their practice, I think we all have a partnership waiting for us, either with ourselves or that chosen family that brings you closer to creation. Or maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll be blessed with a CEO like Oscar to lead you. Either way, the only option is to take that leap of faith and press that shutter for the first time.

OSKI STUDIO: The Power of Two

An ocean of trauma brought to life through film