African Women in photography

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Viviane RAKOTOARIVONY, is a self taught social photographer born and living in Madagascar. She was the first photographer to be exhibited at Is’art Gallery, in Antananarivo. Entitled « Tano-Ora (holding the time), the photo work evokes strength and sexuality at young age. The photo project has evolved and was exhibited in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013.

She has worked on a project with the European Union that aimed to improve the education of students in public elementary school in Madagascar. In 2012 she began working on a personal photo project named « Mother », about giving birth and the feelings that follow afterwards: ecstatic joy, anxiety and depression… In 2020, deeply affected by the total lockdown consequences, she started taking pictures of the most vulnerable people in the capital of Madagascar, those who live from hand to mouth. The photo project was awarded by the grant funding H.Y. (Madagascar).

She is currently in artistic residency at the French Institute of Madagascar.

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ANDYMKOSI is a mixed media artist with a huge admiration for documentary centred work and approach. Mkosi is from Cape Town but lives and works in Johannesburg. She has worked with a number of collaborators and communities, on themes ranging from housing issues in South Africa, particularly Queers and housing in South Africa. Mkosi has been published by Newframe, Mail and Guardian, OKAY AFRICA and Design Indaba to name a few. Andy's work around Ubungoma (Spiritual calling) dismantles previous concepts about it. Her work also focuses on creating sustainable environments within which artists can thrive. At the moment Mkosi and filmmaker friend ,Tseliso Monaheng, document fellow photographers on the continent, focusing on their process through a podcast called This Audio Is Visual . Mkosi photographed the cover for the award winning anthology of poems by Koleka Putuma. Giving Collective Amnesia a cover illustrating a woman in a black dress, with a white baby doll on her lap.

Ayesha Kazim is a freelance photographer working between New York City and Cape Town, South Africa. Her photographic practice involves producing clean, refined portraits that bring a fresh, lively energy to her subjects through colorful, yet coordinated settings and styling. Having honed her craft while living and learning in fourteen countries during her formative years,

Ayesha’s work draws inspiration from a wide range of cultures and experiences that aid in her ability to connect with her subjects and produce meaningful portraits. Through her work, Ayesha seeks to capture intimate, candid moments of everyday life that spurn out of organic connections and emotions. Ayesha finds inspiration in moments of rest, introspection, and childlike wonder which materializes itself in the photographing of subjects that exude resilience, power, and a humbled sense of confidence.

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Dahlia Maubane (b.1988) is a photographer, multimedia designer and arts facilitator. She completed a Bachelor of Technology in Multimedia at the University of Johannesburg in 2009. She went on to study at the Market Photo Workshop and has participated in numerous Market Photo Workshop projects and exhibitions. In 2014, her ongoing body of work, Woza Sisi was one of the 10 open-call projects during the Joburg Photo Umbrella. She then showcased the third culmination of Woza Sisi in her hometown, with the support of the National Arts Council in 2017. Maubane is the recipient of the inaugural Market Photo Workshop Alumnus Award. She expanded on Woza Sisi with a new chapter of photographs which were showcased at The Photo Workshop Gallery in 2018. In 2019, Maubane had her first international solo exhibition as part of the inaugural Dialogue Vintage Photography Festival, in Amsterdam. She was awarded the 2019/2020 Ampersand Foundation Fellowship and Residency where she was based in New York for six weeks. In 2022, Maubane completed her MTech in Fine Art (cum laude) at the University of Johannesburg. Her study explored the role of participatory photography within a group of women street hairstylists in Johannesburg, CBD.

Maubane is the co-founder of Woza Sisi Collective, a female-led organisation dedicated to increasing visibility and opportunities for Black women lens-based artists.

The collective aims to expand on creating agency and empowering Black women to share insights about their experiences through visual storytelling.

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Lebo Thoka is a Johannesburg based photographer, image retoucher and artist. Born and raised in Johannesburg she later on went to study at the Open Window Institute and during her third year of study she began to branch out into being a photographic artist. In 2018 she graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Visual Communication majoring in Photography.

Since that time she has had a solo exhibition and hosted a talk at the David Krut Gallery in Johannesburg. She has won a Loerie certificate award for Print and Design Crafts (photography) in 2018. Her work has been shown at the 2018 Addis Foto Fest based in Ethiopia, she has been shortlisted for the 2019 Contemporary African Photography Prize, and her work has been featured in The Washington Post and The New York times online platforms.

Thoka’s visual work is mainly influenced by her being a Feminist. The topics she cover ranges from the issue of femicide in South Africa, the nuanced experiences of navigating South Africa and the larger world as a black woman, as well as exploring black womanhood in proximity to topics such as religion, history vs present day, culture, agency, etc. Her work largely uses the repurposing of objects to translate new meaning and narratives with which she addresses social issues linked to navigating black womanhood and the violence it faces within society.

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Although primarily a photographer, Lebohang Kganye often incorporates her interest in sculpture, performance, installation and film in her work. She explores fictional history by using archives to merge illusive characters with “real” characters in a new universe. Kganye received her introduction to photography at the Market Photo Workshop, in Johannesburg, in 2009 and completed the Advanced Photography Programme in 2011. She is currently doing her Masters in Fine Arts at the Witwatersrand University.

Kganye is currently a finalist for the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize, 2019. She was the recipient of the Camera Austria Award, 2019 and the finalist of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative, 2019. Kganye was the recipient of the Tokyo International Photography Prize, 2019, the Rise Art Prize Global Artist of the Year in 2018, and the Jury Prize at the Bamako Encounters Biennale of African Photography, 2015.

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Neo Ntsoma is a leading South African photographer with an international reputation and is sought after for her photography, her ability to mentor and her capacity to serve as a member of a jury on international photography competitions.

In 2004, Neo Ntsoma became the first woman recipient of the Mohamed Amin Award, the CNN African Journalist of the Year Photography Prize for her photo essay entitled, 'Their World in Flames.’ Among many of her accolades, Ntsoma is also the recipient of the National Geographic All Roads Photography Award and the co-author of ‘Women by Women’, a book on 50 years of women’s photography in South Africa commissioned by the Department of Arts and Culture and published by Wits University Press.

She worked for Sunday Times (SA) and The Star (SA) newspapers, before starting her own visual communications and multimedia company, Neo Ntsoma Productions in 2007, creating visual narratives for corporate clients such as Africa Business Network (ABN) and Facebook Inc.

Ntsoma also serves as a nominator for the well-known Joop Swart Masterclass and the 6×6 Global Talent Program of World Press Photo, bringing to the fore talented visual storytellers from the field of photojournalism and documentary photography.

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Sydelle Willow Smith is a storyteller passionate about media advocacy working across Africa, based in Cape Town, born in Johannesburg. Her love of photography developed at The Market Photo Workshop, which led to a deeper ethnographic enquiry in Visual Anthropology at The University of Cape Town, followed by a Master’s of Social Science in African Studies from The University of Oxford. Her work has taken her across the African continent for clients like Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, National Geographic Traveller, The New York Times, The Africa Report, Red Bull, DHL, Facebook, Orange Mobile and The Treatment Action Campaign.

For the past five years Sydelle has been working on a personal documentary project, focusing on white South Africans conceptions of belonging in relation to settler colonial histories entitled Un/Settled - that has been published in the New York Times and publicly exhibited in both New York, the Netherlands with World Press Photo, and was part of Infecting The City in the Company Gardens in Cape Town where it has garnered a wide range of audience response. The exhibition is currently installed at the VnA Waterfront in Cape Town and aims to provoke and unpack uncomfortable dialogues about whiteness.

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Zanele (Plaatjie) Dhlamini was born in 1990 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She lives and works in Johannesburg. Dhlamini’s work is based on the visual narration of social issues in South African townships. In 2012 Dhlamini completed a National Diploma in Photography and graduated in 2013 at the Vaal University of Technology. In 2013 she was a finalist and represented Africa in the Sony World Photography Organisation competition in the student category. As a top ten finalist from 20 000 students worldwide, she participated in a group exhibition held in London at the Somerset house in 2013. In 2016 Dhlamini participated in a group exhibition at the Addis Photo Festival Ethiopia. In 2019 Dhlamini exhibited in a pop up art space at the Goethe institute in Johannesburg.

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Charmaine Chitate is a Zimbabwean multimedia creative (photography, videography, film/VR, graphic design, TV) and communications consultant based in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Science with the University of South Africa whilst managing an online media platform for young-adults.

In the first quarter of 2018, Chitate was part of the ‘Lost and Found: Resilience, Uncertainty, Expectation, Excitement & Hope’ exhibition hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, which later toured to their Bulawayo gallery. Subsequent to that, she was one of two members of the Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers (ZAFP) to be selected to exhibit at the 2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair. At the Fair, Charmaine was voted in as one of the Top 20 contemporary African artists who have ‘the potential to shape and inspire the global art scene – both now and into the future.’

In 2019, Charmaine’s project, ‘I Am A Woman Defined/Stories About Her’ was shortlisted as one of the Top 6 projects in the Virtual Reality Category – overall, Top 30 across 5 categories by Digital Lab Africa.

In 2020, Ms. Chitate was selected as one of fifty winners for Africalia’s “Creativity is Life” COVID-19 reliefs grant for artists for the project, “Whispering Silence”.

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A product of dual heritage, Tamary Kudita was born in Zimbabwe whilst her ancestry can be traced back to Orange Free State, historical Boer state in Southern Africa. She chose to study fine art at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. There, she graduated in 2017 with a bachelor of fine arts. Subsequently, she established herself in fine art photography thus beginning her artistic career. She maintains an active studio practice and has exhibited in Zimbabwe and outside the country.

Her investigation looking at the legacy of colonialism on the family structure, has resulted in exhibitions delving into the history of the Post-colonial identity. Her first solo exhibition was held at the PH Center gallery in Cape town which explored notions of race and representation. Her previous exhibitions have been held at the Michaelis Galleries also in Cape town, titled, Maintaining Memories. Tamary, continued her investigation of history with an exhibition titled ‘African Victorian’ which was held at the National Gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe. Her most recent exhibition titled ‘Re-presentation’ was held at Artillery Gallery also in Zimbabwe. This exhibition was an examination of how our unchosen histories shape our contemporary state. She has also been featured in Photo District News Magazine which is an international publication.

Her future plans involve continuing and evolving her body of work by merging her antique processes with contemporary ways of photographing. Furthermore, she will be exploring themes that are tied to Black photography and Otherness.

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