Samantha Lee Osner

She was on her way to university. Then she sat down in one of her father’s lectures, because she was bored.

She never got up. Artist, exhibitor, teacher of Photoshop for the Artist, and the reason any of this ended up online.

The university she never went to

Her father would not pay university tuition for studies she could not justify

Samantha matriculated as a strong academic. Getting in was never the question. The question was Stellenbosch or Cape Town, and she was weighing it up largely on where more of her friends would be.

Martin Osner, her father, refused to pay the tuition until she could tell him exactly what she wanted to study and why. He offered her a gap year instead, and the family would carry her through it. A room without rent, food without payment, laundry without payment, and twelve months to gather her thoughts.

It is the same instinct that runs through everything else here. He does not sell people things they cannot yet justify, and that evidently includes his own daughter.

Samantha Lee Osner photographing in a field — Samantha Lee Osner. She has now been beside Martin for the whole walk.

The lecture

She asked him for a camera afterwards

During that gap year she wandered into one of his lectures in the studio and sat down, because she had nothing better to do that afternoon.

She came to him after it so motivated that she wanted to try the project, and asked whether he had a camera she could use. He gave her a camera and a tripod. It was not long before the practical work began and he had to hand over the Land Rover and the keys as well, as she went off to learn landscape photography.

Samantha Lee Osner photographing from the roof of a Land Rover in the mountains — Off learning landscape photography, in her father’s Land Rover

Martin now jokes that he not only handed over his entire business that day without knowing it, but his tripod and the keys to his Land Rover as well.

At a glance

How Samantha Lee actually got here

2012

Matriculates as a strong academic with Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town both on the table, choosing largely on where more of her friends would be. Martin will not pay tuition until she can say exactly what she wants to do with it, and offers her a gap year instead. A room without rent, food without payment, laundry without payment, and one year to work it out.

2013

She wanders into one of his lectures in the studio and sits down, because she is bored. Afterwards she comes to him so motivated that she asks whether he has a camera she can borrow. He hands over a camera and a tripod, and before long the Land Rover and the keys as well.

The years after

She takes his landscape photography class three times in a row, then assists him on every landscape class he teaches. She takes the fine art classes over and over, first as a student and then as his assistant.

The commercial years

Immersed in commercial photography, a genre she found uncomfortable, and which taught her lighting and problem solving faster than anything comfortable would have.

2018

Her first exhibition, Daydreams, a collection of pinhole photography, at the Art Photography Gallery in Cape Town. This is where she stops assisting and starts building a body of work of her own.

Shortly after

Martin asks her to stop taking commercial work and to come and run the gallery with him, showing more of her own work on the walls.

Later in 2018

They open the Osner Private Collection in Hout Bay, a private gallery for their print collections, where they exhibit as a father and daughter collaboration.

2020

Covid, and Martin believes his teaching is finished. Samantha puts him on Zoom, which he had never once considered, and students begin arriving from all over the world because it is finally convenient.

2023

The Art Photography Academy launches. She teaches Photoshop for the Artist, does the digital side of the Academy’s own work, and helps present the workshops.

There is an artist in everyone

He has said it for thirty five years. Then he proved it at home.

It is the line Martin has used for as long as he has taught, and he has never once softened it. Then his own daughter, an academic on her way to university with no idea she was an artist, sat down in one of his lectures out of boredom and never got up. If it can happen to somebody who grew up in the house, it can happen to a fifty five year old who has been taking technically correct photographs for twenty years.

Three times over

She did not do the course once, or twice

She did his landscape photography class three times over, not because she had to, but because she loved it that much. After that she assisted him on every landscape class he taught.

Then again

And the fine art classes, over and over

First as a student, then as his assistant. In a very short time she knew every technique inside out, and that is exactly why she teaches them so well.

Today

In it every week

She helps present the workshops, she takes lectures of her own, and she is in charge of the digital side of everything the Academy makes.

Martin still jokes that his Photoshop is better than hers. It is entirely tongue in cheek, and everybody in the room knows it, including him. The Academy has been quite a journey, and she is a great deal of the reason it is one to be proud of.

Her own work

Nine pieces from her own collections

Minimal, feminine, and built in layers. Paint, transfers and overlays worked over a photograph, until the photograph is no longer the point. Click any of them to see it properly.

Harmony of Gold, by Samantha Lee Osner — Harmony of Gold

Précis, Divine Harmony, by Samantha Lee Osner — Précis, Divine Harmony

Eternity No.2, by Samantha Lee Osner — Eternity No.2

Whispers of Nature No.2, by Samantha Lee Osner — Whispers of Nature No.2

Boulevard Reverie, by Samantha Lee Osner — Boulevard Reverie

Beau Nexus No.2, by Samantha Lee Osner — Beau Nexus No.2

Pastures of Splendour No.2, by Samantha Lee Osner — Pastures of Splendour No.2

Eternity No.1, by Samantha Lee Osner — Eternity No.1

Embers in Bloom, by Samantha Lee Osner — Embers in Bloom

In her own words

Artist statement

As a young and emerging artist, I am drawn to minimalism and exude a feminine style. I explore various mediums, including paint, transfers and overlays, to uniquely capture the world's beauty and the nature around me.

Through my art, I aim to reflect the simplicity and elegance in the natural world while also expressing my unique perspective and emotional response to the subjects I depict. My artistic process is driven by my innate curiosity and my desire to create.

I strive to create art that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also evokes emotion and creates a connection with the viewer. Art should not only be appreciated but also inspire and provoke thought. My goal is to continue pushing the boundaries of my mediums and constantly explore new techniques and ideas.

The phone call

“Give half of your gallery to your daughter”

The Osner Gallery in Hout Bay had just come through its renovations and Martin was getting ready to open his first exhibition in it. Then the phone rang. It was Koos van der Lende, one of Southern Africa’s finest landscape photographers, and a friend Martin had trusted for years to look at his own work and tell him what was wrong with it, because Koos is brutally honest.

“Sit down, my friend, I have something to tell you. If I were you, I would give half of your gallery space to your daughter.”

Martin told him he had to be joking. He was not. “I think her work will complement yours. Yours is more experimental and bolder, hers is soft, feminine and refined. The two together would be magnificent.”

Martin asked him whether he really thought she was that good.

“I told you to sit down. I actually think she is probably going to be better than you.”

He thought about it for a day or two. Then he called her in and walked her round the gallery.

“Do you see that wall, and that wall, and that wall?” She said she did. “They’re your walls. Make them look beautiful, and don’t let me down.”

That is the moment her exhibitions changed shape, from a single collection shown among his, to whole rooms of her own.

Shown, framed, and on a wall

Thirteen exhibitions since 2018

Between the Art Photography Gallery in Cape Town and the family galleries in Hout Bay, where she and Martin exhibit as a father and daughter collaboration. Since 2023 she has had a show of her own every November, and this year her work is hanging outside Cape Town for the first time.

May 2018DaydreamsArt Photography Gallery, Cape Town

April 2019NèvèOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

July 2019EternityOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

November 2019Silver Waters, and SerenityOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

November 2020Pasture of SplendourArt Photography Gallery, Cape Town

March 2021Masquerade, Enchanted, and Concrete FacadeOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

October 2021Memoir, and Beau NexusOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

April 2022La vie est BelleOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

December 2022Pièce de RésistanceOsner Private Collection, Hout Bay

November 2023SerendipityOsner Gallery, Hout Bay

November 2024Abstracts of LightOsner Gallery, Hout Bay

November 2025ReminisceOsner Gallery, Hout Bay

July 2026Echoes of the EarthInara House, Val de View Estate, Paarl

Martin Osner and Samantha Lee Osner in the Osner Gallery, Hout Bay — Martin and Samantha Lee Osner, Osner Gallery, Hout Bay. Her collections run across landscape, fine art and mixed media prints, in limited and open editions.

2020

She is the reason the Academy exists at all

When Covid arrived Martin thought he was about to lose his teaching entirely. Everything he did happened in a room with people in it, and the rooms had closed.

Samantha put him on Zoom. He had never once considered it, and he did not much like the idea. Within weeks people were arriving from Europe, North America and Australia, because for the first time it was convenient.

Three years later that became the Art Photography Academy. None of the rest of this site happens without that one suggestion.

Samantha Lee Osner, Martin Osner and Ralf Armbruster during a live Open Mic session — Samantha Lee, Martin and Ralf on a live Open Mic evening. She is on the microphone every fortnight.

Samantha Lee Osner working on a print in her studio — Still making the work she teaches

What she teaches

Photoshop for the Artist

Samantha wrote and teaches the Academy’s Photoshop course, built around the art photography techniques rather than around the software. Twenty two lessons, from Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw through to the layer work that finishes a piece, with three more on the way.

She also takes a small number of private lessons each week, online and one to one, for people who want to push a piece of their own further than a lesson can go.

Photoshop for the Artist Email Samantha

She started with no idea she was an artist either

She sat in one lecture and asked for a camera. Getting Started in Art Photography is the modern version of the room she sat down in.

Start where she started

Or read the story of her father, Martin Osner, which is the other half of this one.