Joburg Art Fair

Generously supported by the Department of Arts and Culture, the Market Photo Workshop exhibited a special project at the 2011 FNB Joburg Art Fair. The exhibition showcased current students, as well as recently-graduated alumni.

The Market Photo Workshop, as a school of photography and project space, is not a commercial environment, which makes our relationship with the commercial venture of the Joburg Art Fair a complex one. This opportunity, however, allowed the Photo Workshop as an institution, and most importantly students of the school, to engage broader art audiences, widen networks, and afford emerging photographers and students access to spaces that are often limited.

About the featured photographers

Akona Kenqu was born in Cape Town in 1987. She moved to Johannesburg at the age of 11 in 1999. She completed her matric in 2005 and in 2008 began studying photography at the Market Photo Workshop. She has since received a certificate in the Foundation and Intermediate courses, as well as the Advanced Programme. In 2010 a series from the body of work Tshepisong was published by internationally acclaimed photography journal Camera Austria.

Judy Lelliott studied at the Market Photo Workshop in the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Programme. She is a former journalist, having worked for the Sunday Times and The Times as reporter and multimedia producer.

Lebohang Kganye was born in 1990 in Katlehong, Johannesburg. She is currently completing an Advanced Photography Programme at the Market Photo Workshop, and is currently working on a project on fairy tales and childhood. Her influences include Santu Mofokeng, Cindy Sherman, Mike Kelley, and Kathleen Bitetti.

Mack Magagane’s work explores urban spaces in the city of Johannesburg by narration. Born in 1990 in Soweto, Magagane joined the Photo Workshop in 2009, completing the Advanced Programme in Photography, and has recently returned from the Photoquai Festival in Paris where his body of work, I’ll be gone soon 2011, was featured. Additionally, Magagane is the 2011/12 Tierney Fellowship recipient at the Market Photo Workshop.

Simangele Kalisa was born in Soweto in 1981. After completing an Advanced Programme in Photography, she was awarded the second annual Tierney Fellwoship at the Market Photo Workshop. Her work will be featured in an upcoming issue of Chimurenga magazine later this year.

Thabiso Sekgala presented his debut solo exhibition, Homeland, at The Photo Workshop Gallery in April 2011. Born in 1981, in Soweto, Johannesburg, Sekgala was awarded the 2010/11 Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop. Having completed the Foundation and Intermediate Courses at the Market Photo Workshop in 2008, Sekgala has gone on to exhibit in group shows, both locally and in the greater African continent.

Tracy Edser was born 1982 in Johannesburg. Since receiving the first Tierney Fellowship at the Market Photo Workshop, Edser has worked steadily as a photographer, crossing between the fields of photojournalism and fine art. In 2009 she won an award as part of the CiT:Y Festival in Gauteng, and has recently had work published internationally in Le Monde (France) and Rolling Stone (Germany).

For more information on the Joburg Art Fair, click here