During the early 1970s, a twenty one year old Annie Leibovitz attended a night class on photography at the San Francisco Art Institute not knowing that three years later she would become the chief photographer at what is now considered one of the most world renowned music publications: Rolling Stone. Leibovitz went on to photograph…
Within an incredibly short space of time, my next interviewee has forged an impressive professional career within the photographic space, amassing an extremely impressive portfolio of work under her belt. Assante Chiweshe, known to many by her creative moniker Kahlo Greed, is an emerging Johannesburg-based photographer, identifiable through her signature film portraiture. Taking a closer…
Cape Town based multidisciplinary artist Delmaine Donson may need no introduction to many of you. Her digital illustrative work, which focuses on celebrating the beauty of femmes of colour, has amassed her a large online presence and led her to work with a multitude of big clients and the illustrations for a children’s book. Today,…
It was only last week when Mishaal Gangaram was announced as a part of The Design Indaba Emerging Creative Class of 2022. Gangaram is an emerging Johannesburg based conceptual photographer, storyteller and self-portraitist — who also happens to be one of my current local favourite photographers. If you’re plugged into local pop culture, it’s likely…
James Barnor – also known as the first Ghanaian photographer to capture images in colour – is one of the most prolific artists and visual documenters of the past century. His work over the years has captured Ghanaian people in Accra and London in all their awe, wonderment and style. US history is often looked…
With a history that traces back to 1800s colonial Ghana, the Winneba Fancy Dress festival – also known as Kaakaamotobi or Winneba’s Christmas – is a vibrant and sharp display of cross-cultural integration and post-colonial reinvention. I first learnt of the masquerade after getting lost on the internet and finding myself on the website/digital portfolio…
“When a woman is born, she’s a daughter that opens the door of heaven for her father. When the daughter gets married she fulfils half of the religion of her husband. When the wife gives birth, paradise for her children lies at her feet” writes the Cape Town-based creative duo of Faatimah Allie and Ya’eesh…
I must have been on Pinterest or Instagram, vacuously perusing a blur of images – when my mindless scrolling was abruptly interrupted with an image that stuck with me for months. An image of a fresh faced boy in a black netted singlet, gold chains and velvet black drawstring trousers, gently slouched to one side…
Fluidity is a cry of freedom, is the sum of different stories, dreams, longings and desires, it’s a river junction it’s about me, about you, about us. Here we merge, we are stronger, we are FLUIDITY. Fluidity creative team, 2021. “We are all bodies of water. To think embodiment as watery belies the understanding of…
Before I wanted to be anything in this world I wanted to be a señora….orbiting the women in my family, in the kitchen, in the living room, by the dresser. Anywhere there was power to be brokered. Anywhere the world was broken open to be understood. Anywhere there were secrets to be harvested…anywhere where I…
Nuits Balnéaire’s visual response to the One-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface, a conversation between the Atlantic Ocean, Hakeem Adam & Maxwell Mutanda, is strongly inspired by the feminine energy of the Gulf of Guinea. With this work, the artist captures the feminine energy, force and mystery of the West African coastline of Grand-Bassam — where…
I’m really curious about the human experience, the human condition. I think there’s a vicarious aspect to my work. I’m generally not an expressive person and photography has become a medium to explore emotion, or things that are difficult to verbalise. Lately I’ve been feeling [that] everything is related and whether it’s still life, landscapes,…
