A bird's eye view of the world, arts, and more with News24 subscriber Henry Sudwarts

80-year-old Henry Sudwarts is no stranger to the media industry. Following his career journeys in fashion photography and tourism, he now finds pockets of peace in birdwatching and staying updated on current events with News24.

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By: Saara Mowlana & Visuals By: Tando Guzana

Sitting along the water’s edge at Intaka Island, large and small birds treat onlookers to a sleepy performance as they flit by collecting scraps of leaf debris for their nearby nests.

Entering with a comfortable saunter and sunny disposition, retiree Henry Sudwarts makes his way through the bird sanctuary of which he is a member, clad in his black puffer vest jacket, secured golf hat, and trusty Nikon camera.

Sudwarts is one of over 80 000 subscribers who have partnered with News24 as it seeks to bring quality, trusted journalism to South Africa. In this series I Am News24, we get to know some of our loyal subscribers and celebrate them and their shared love of the news.

For Henry, the unbiased and neutral news coverage of News24 helps him stay in tune and up to date on what’s happening in South Africa – which is why he opts to subscribe and stay in the know and loop with news updates.

Sudwarts has called South Africa home for more than four decades, having been born in the UK, and has embraced an appreciation for his adopted homeland and its news.

“I married a South African a long time ago and we came here. I came here actually on holiday and kind of stayed, and she didn't particularly want to go back to England. But, I was happy and I enjoyed the sunshine - so, I've been in South Africa for well over 40 years now,” recalls Sudwarts.

With an early career start in photography, Sudwarts has experience in the media and production industry.

“I started my life actually in the photographic industry - I started life doing fashion and advertising photography back in the 60s in the days we had to use film,” he explains.

His career journey then took him into the TV and lighting space and later saw him expanding his family jewellery business when he got married before selling it and spending the last 25 years of his working lifetime in the travel and tourism industry. After settling his internationally traversed limbs six years ago at age 74, Sudwarts found himself with idle hands.

All these years later, he found himself drawn back to his first love and vocation – photography. He had come for regular walks at Intaka Island before when visiting his in-laws nearby and had grown an interest in watching the diverse range of birds go about their daily lives in the space. This habit sparked a newfound interest in his retirement years – bird watching and photography.

“I sold my business, and then I really didn't know what to do with myself. I was 74, and I didn't know what to do. And I thought, well, I haven't taken a picture for many years except using a cell phone. So, I said, to my wife, ‘It’s my birthday, don't you want to buy me a camera?’ Which she did,” recalls Sudwarts, “And I thought, what am I going to do now? I've got a camera and I knew about this place - I'd come and walk because my in-laws live in a block of flats just across the way here, so I'd been here before, so I started walking around. There are lots of birds here - and that's how I started taking pictures about five years ago.”

As he meanders through the site, Sudwarts and his keen eye come to life as he swiftly catches shots of the birds. It’s with this keen and cunning eye Sudwarts filters through news and subscribes only to trusted and reliable publications like News24. In the age of information, Sudwarts feels there’s still a lot of bias and ignorance in the world.

“We live in a world that's become much more integrated and closed in. However, I believe that people have never been more ignorant about what's going on somewhere else, although they've got all the facilities to be able to do this, and I find that very, very hurtful,” explains Sudwarts.

When it comes to his News24 habits, Sudwarts appreciates the ease of accessibility to local news coverage as well as the nuanced balance found in the journalists working at News24.

“It’s easily accessible. I enjoy that because it does give me local news about what's happening in South Africa,” he says. "I think your journalists tend to cover across the range."

As someone who enjoys staying up to date with diverse news options, Sudwarts finds it hard to converse with people who choose to remain out of the loop and news cycle, “I'm not sure that I could have a conversation with a person who refuses to read the news. If you're not... well-read, I think you'll have a problem finding out what is ‘fake’ news. That's why you can't just read one publication - you've got to look across the spectrum. I'm lucky, I'm well educated, and I've been a reader all my life, so I think I can detect if something is fake or not, but even I still could be fooled,” he explains.

Sudwarts appreciates a diverse assortment of news in the same way he does not limit himself to specific ‘favourite’ birds. The sections he enjoys range from local and foreign affairs as well as arts and culture to economic and travel updates.

And much like his feathery muses, Sudwarts aims to attune himself to the world around him so that he can confidently be aware of what’s happening and able to discern facts from fiction – which is what he enjoys about birds.

“They're highly intelligent - birds are unbelievably intelligent. They are also very good parents. They look after their babies and feed them like I wish most humans would look after their children the way birds do. They're canny and very environmentally aware of where they can exist. And, because they are so quick and difficult, it's a challenge - I need a challenge."

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