Looking back in black and white to see more clearly
A nostalgic journey through analogue photography that bridges generations and memories
Portraiture
The current infatuation with portraiture has colonial roots
However, contemporary artists such as Cinga Samson, Zanele Muholi and Mohau Modisakeng found a liberating ally in self-portraiture
The Portfolio: Thandokuhle Ngcobo
The photographer’s study looks at appearance-based prejudice
The Portfolio: Lindokuhle Ndlovu meets Mr Mbhele
A chance encounter with a stranger had the photographer rethinking the meaning of scars
The Portfolio: Percy Mabandu
Writer and visual artist Percy Mabandu talks about the energy of his portrait of Bra Winston Mankuku Ngozi, entitled ‘The Bull’
The Portfolio: Saaiqa
Photographer Saaiqa shares the story of how she captured this picture that reflects both the socioeconomic realities of our country and simple companionship
Inside Nonzuzo Gxekwa’s time machine
The photographer’s images of Jo’burg capture its busyness and complexities
The abject are the subject
“We tend to interpret portraits as though we were reading something inherent in the person portrayed … We easily link the people’s facial features to the content of their character. This is odd. After all, we no longer believe you can determine someone’s personality by measuring their skull with a pair of calipers … Not […]
The Portfolio: Delwyn Verasamy
“The most beautiful portraits of humans often occur when a person allows you in to glimpse the vulnerability and rawness of their being.”
Beware the white gaze
Photography is an art plagued by colonial voyeurism and today’s creators need to keep this in mind
Black Portraitures III and the lessons of asserting Blackness
Here one witnessed an array of voices, of colour mostly, speaking for themselves, speaking on their experiences.
Where does it hurt?
The first day of the third Black Portraitures conference featured a panel titled “ Our Lives as Theory: LGBTQI & African… remixed".
Africans in America opens at Goodman Gallery
Opening of In Context: Africans in America at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, November 17 2016.
Mary Ellen Mark, champion of ‘people on the edges’, dies
Mark, whose unflinching portraits of child prostitutes, mental patients and the homeless made her a leading documentary photographer, has died at 75.
Portraits of isolated beauty in bustling Lagos
In the fashion of great African studio photographers, Lakin Ogunbanwo tears down and rebuilds portraiture in his own image, writes Stefanie Jason.
After Freud, the camera will rule supreme
The death of Lucien Freud highlights a specific crisis in the art of the traditional portrait.