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,…
I was born eThekwini (formerly Durban)*. Growing up ebhish’ laseThekwini**, summers were often the highlight of the year. My family and I would often drive to the beach in a car packed to the brim with camp chairs, cooler boxes and treats. As kids, we would sing gleefully, ‘eBhish’ Durban, ebhish’, bhish’, bhish’, Durban!’ This…
“Can the same instrument that has historically been used to enact and perpetuate violence against Black people, be reclaimed by Black people and used to undo the legacy of that violence?” Asks multidisciplinary artist Ranji Mangcu about the camera in her graduate project IQHINA. Born in Manhattan, New York, in 1998 to South African parents,…
On a pre-pandemic evening in 2019, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Dayyaan Waja through mutual friends. I remember the night vividly as a student wandering around west campus, with Dayyaan capturing moments of my friend group’s late-night adventures on camera. The videos and images he shot, I still regard today as one…
Grace De La Hunt is a Cape Town based analogue photographer whose jaw-dropping work I’ve kept a close eye on for years. De La Hunt is unlike most analogue photographers who, let’s not beat around the bush, seem to be popping up around every corner. See, her format of choice isn’t the usual 35mm, medium…
