The Namibian @40: Henry van Rooi

Henry van Rooi, who is The Namibian’s longest-serving photographer, started working at the publication 33 years ago as a pictures developer.

This was after working at Windhoek Observer (then Windhoek Advertiser) for a year and a half before it closed down.

He spent two months at home until a friend told him about a photo developer vacancy at The Namibian’s darkroom in 1992.

Van Rooi says a private photographer taught him how to take pictures over the course of three days in the field.

“I started developing and printing photos in the darkroom. Reporters gather stories and my job was to cut out the photos, put them in A4 and print them out,” he says.

Van Rooi used to go out in the field to take pictures, write captions and send them to reporters and editors for editing.

He remembers a photo he took of an accident that happened in 2005 at Otjomuise during knock-off time while driving with his wife.

It was a picture of a limb at the accident scene.

“I told my wife: Listen, there is my picture now,” he says.

After taking the photoicture, Van Rooi called then-editor Gwen Lister, who refused to publish the picture in the paper, saying it was too gruesome.

Van Rooi says the photo still lingers in his memory and he is still traumatised by it until today.

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